Global Action to End Smoking (formerly Foundation for a Smoke Free World) lays off CEO Cliff Douglas

In October 2023 Philip Morris International’s Foundation for a Smoke Free World hired Cliff Douglas as its new CEO (Wikipedia entry). FSFW was the latest in a long string of “third party” organizations created and funded by the tobacco industry to support its political needs, in this case to promote what the industry calls “smoke free” products, including heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, as the way to “end smoking” (as opposed to becoming nicotine free). On June 19, 2025, Medium reported that the Board had laid off Douglas.

Part of the deal to hire Douglas was that PMI would end funding of FSFW after a final lump sum payment of $122.5 million, effectively funding FSFW at $17.5 million per year until 2030. Douglas announced that he would not seek further tobacco funding. He subsequently renamed FSFW to Global Action to End Smoking, but maintained the focus on promoting the industry’s harm reduction message (i.e., end smoking while still buying the industry’s nicotine products).

(My guess is that PMI ended its funding because it decided that FSFW was not worth the money in the long run because it had failed to gain acceptance by health authorities around the world.)

Douglas had been the American Cancer Society National Vice President for Tobacco Control and director of the University of Michigan’s Tobacco Research Network, where he had been supporting tobacco harm reduction.

The Board also laid off Jeff Willett who Douglas had hired as VP for Strategic Engagement a few months earlier. Willett had been working as a Vice President at the American Heart Association on tobacco and other issues.

Both Douglas and Willett had long histories of working for other organizations involved in tobacco control. Douglas long career included appearing in the 1994 Day One story on how tobacco companies manipulated nicotine in cigarettes.

The Medium story contains many other interesting details about Global Action to End Smoking, including how well the board members pay themselves.