4. Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI)
We move from high-tech military equipment to the second-largest tobacco company in the United States, which ranks 4th in our list of companies you didn’t know were run by women and which produced brands such as Camel, Pall Mall, Kent, and more.
The president and CEO of this S&P 500 company is Susan Cameron, born in New York in 1958. She has a B.S. in business from the University of Florida and an MBA from Bellarmine University, both obtained in the nearly 80’s. In that same period of time she got a job at Brown & Williamson, getting promotion after promotion, and working her way up the corporate ladder. By 1994 she was named Director of Marketing in China, and in 1996 she became the head of International Brands. In 2001 she became the first woman CEO of a major cigarette company.
Following the 2004 merger between Brown & Williamson and R.J. Reynolds, Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) was created and Cameron became the president and CEO of the new company, also being named Chairman two years later.
Cameron has helped the company expand its business away from traditional tobacco products towards smokeless tobacco and dissolvables. She took a break for a few years from both the position of Chairwoman and CEO, and upon returning, kickstarted a $27.4 billion deal to acquire Lorillard, a producer of brands such as Newport, Kent and Max.
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