Теміртаудың құпиясын ашқан америкалық ғалым

American whistleblower, tobacco company executive

Jeffrey Stephen Wigand ('/w//aɪ//ɡ//æ//n//d/; born December 17, 1942) is an American biochemist and whistleblower. He is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced harm cigarettes and in 1996 blew the whistle on tobacco tampering at the company. This was adapted for 1999 film The Insider, with Russell Crowe portraying Wigand. He currently lectures around the world as an expert witness and consultant for various tobacco issues.

Wigand was born in New York City and grew up in the Bronx and later Pleasant Valley, New York. After a brief time in the military (including a short assignment in Vietnam), he earned a Master's in Biochemistry and a PhD from the University at Buffalo in Biochemistry.

Prior to working for Brown & Williamson, Wigand worked for several health care companies, including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. In addition, he was employed as General Manager and Marketing Director at Union Carbide in Japan, and as a senior vice president at Technicon Instruments.

Wigand became nationally known as a whistleblower on February 4, 1996, when he appeared on the CBS news program 60 Minutes. He stated that Brown & Williamson had intentionally manipulated its tobacco blend with chemicals such as ammonia to increase the effect of nicotine in cigarette smoke. Wigand had begun to work for Brown & Williamson in January 1989. He was fired on March 24, 1993. He says that he was fired as a whistleblower because he knew that high ranking corporate executives knowingly approved the addition of additives to their cigarettes, that were known to be carcinogenic and/or addictive, such as coumarin. Brown & Williamson undertook a concerted effort to discredit Wigand, which included hiring Terry Lenzner's company Investigative Group International, to produce a 500 page dossier on Wigand, which was distributed to the media. The dossier backfired, as news outlets examined the claims in it, finding many claims of misconduct to be unsubstantiated or trivial. Wigand is now married to Hope Elizabeth May, an American philosopher, author, and lawyer who is a professor at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where they both now reside.