Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was born in New York City in 1942 and now resides in Mt. Pleasant Michigan. Currently Dr. Wigand travels the world lecturing and acting as an expert witness and doing consultant work on tobacco issues. However, his heart lies with his non-profit organization Smoke-Free Kids, Inc. He feels it is his obligation to concentrate as much energy as possible helping children of all ages to “make better decisions and healthy choices regarding tobacco use.” (Wigand) Dr. Wigand holds academic degrees from the University Of Buffalo School Of Medicine and biomedical Sciences and a Masters Degree in Secondary education from the University of Louisville.
Dr. Wigand has always been a teacher but not all of his teaching roles have been in a classroom. While he started out teaching, he quickly transitioned into the corporate …show more content…
Ensuing death threats lead to years with personal bodyguards as he feared for his life. His wife divorced him, his children chose to go live with their mother and disassociate with him. The pressure and stress caused him to begin drinking heavily. At one point his home and offices were broken into and that coupled with the death threats led him to live anonymously in hotels with his full time bodyguard. There were lawsuits brought against him for revealing trade secrets. These suits were settled after the tobacco industry settled their litigation suit for two hundred and forty six billion dollars.
In 1999 the movie The Insider starring Russell Crowe was released. The movie depicting his life and the events that ensued from his whistle-blowing. “Ever since The Insider came out in 1999, Wigand has been in demand. He speaks at dozens of schools a year.” (Salter) He feel he has been vindicated because of the movie and states “it gave me a tremendous amount of credibility and a much larger platform”.
Dr. Wigand has always been a teacher but not all of his teaching roles have been in a classroom. While he started out teaching, he quickly transitioned into the corporate …show more content…
Ensuing death threats lead to years with personal bodyguards as he feared for his life. His wife divorced him, his children chose to go live with their mother and disassociate with him. The pressure and stress caused him to begin drinking heavily. At one point his home and offices were broken into and that coupled with the death threats led him to live anonymously in hotels with his full time bodyguard. There were lawsuits brought against him for revealing trade secrets. These suits were settled after the tobacco industry settled their litigation suit for two hundred and forty six billion dollars.
In 1999 the movie The Insider starring Russell Crowe was released. The movie depicting his life and the events that ensued from his whistle-blowing. “Ever since The Insider came out in 1999, Wigand has been in demand. He speaks at dozens of schools a year.” (Salter) He feel he has been vindicated because of the movie and states “it gave me a tremendous amount of credibility and a much larger platform”.