Commonwealth-Altadis Inc. has appointed Al Dejewski senior vice president for consumer marketing, and Eric Workman, senior vice president for strategic operations. Both report directly to Kevin Freudenthal, president & CEO of the tobacco company.
“We are quite pleased to have Al join the team,” Freudenthal said. “He brings not only the strategically creative vision of a senior marketer, but also a strong background that includes brand and trade marketing experience. His background in both trade and consumer marketing is directly in line with our vision to be the preferred tobacco company for the trade while leveraging our key sales growth drivers – portfolio strategy, innovation, pricing and customer engagement.”
Prior to being named the head of consumer marketing for CA, Dejewski was senior vice president of global marketing at Specific Media, a privately held digital media company, where he was responsible for the company’s consumer and business-facing brands, leading efforts across advertising and promotions, strategic partnerships and communications. He also oversaw all marketing for the company’s Myspace social media unit.
In announcing the appointment of Eric Workman, CA’s CEO Freudenthal noted that Workman has been handling the role of strategic operations for some time as he headed consumer marketing, but will now be able to devote full attention to the position.
“Eric brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the tobacco industry and the company to this important role,” Freudenthal said. “He is responsible for building the foundation for future profitable business growth in a number of areas through developing and nurturing key processes, capturing and gaining critical knowledge, establishing and growing internal and external networks, promoting key stakeholder engagement and identifying and developing strategic business opportunities.”
In other company news, CA announced that experienced tobacco industry sales executive Rick Di Donato has joined Commonwealth-Altadis as vice president of national accounts, based at the company’s Florida headquarters. He is responsible for the business development of the CA’s full-line product portfolio of cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products for commercially important customers based on current volume, potential volume and geographic reach. This includes such accounts as McLane, Eby-Brown, Circle K and 7-Eleven.
Di Donato will lead an experienced, well-trained team of national account managers who sell the company’s diverse product line and trade programs in all trade channels throughout the USA. “This role and the work this team will accomplish are extraordinarily important to us,” said Paul Matthews, senior vice president sales. “We look forward to Rick’s expertise and leadership skills, and those of the national accounts team we are assembling to help us grow Commonwealth-Altadis.”
Di Donato comes to 
from Japan Tobacco International, USA, where he served as director of consumer and trade marketing and vice president of sales. Other tobacco experience includes four years with the Vector Group, where he served as a key executive on the transition team when Vector and Liggett were merged into one company.
Commonwealth–Altadis, Inc., is a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Imperial Tobacco Group Company providing sales and distribution services to Commonwealth Brands, Inc., and Altadis USA, Inc. The combined Commonwealth Brands and Altadis USA portfolio includes such popular brands USA Gold, Sonoma, Dutch Masters, Backwoods and Phillies.
