Irina Hawk
Professor
Business Ethics
6 December 2014
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Dr. Jeffrey Wigand Biography Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was chemist, activist, scientist and great biologist. He was born in New York City, USA on December 17, 1942. Jeffrey Wigand became known in 1990 when he announced that companies that sell cigarettes had tried to hide the dangers of smoking their product. Jeffrey’s father was a mechanical engineer. His parents were Catholics and they were very strict to their kids. When Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was a teenager his family moved to Pleasant Valley. Pleasant Valley was a very small town in New York. In that time Jeffrey Wigand wanted to be a doctor so he went in Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie. He worked part time as a scrub nurse at Vassar Brothers Hospital and attended his college in the same time. After that, he joined the US air force. Dr. Wigand proudly served the military. At first, Jeffrey Wigand went in Japan, where he was teaching English to Japanese people and learn Japanese language for himself. Jeffrey Wigand learned to speak Japanese and he got a black belt in judo. Next, Jeffrey Wigand went to Vietnam for about one month. After that, he returned home, went back in college and earned his Master's and PhD from the University at Buffalo in biochemistry.
Later on, Jeffrey Wigand met a woman named Linda, she worked as a legal secretary, and they got married in 1971. Dr. Wigand worked in health care companies such as Pfizer and
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Johnson & Johnson. After Johnson & Johnson, Dr. Wigand started to work with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation in January 1989, in that time he was a high school science teacher and Japanese language teacher. Unfortunately, he was fired on March 24, 1993. Because Dr. Wigand said that corporate executives knowingly approved the additives to their cigarettes that were carcinogenic and addictive. Dr. Wigand become one of the most well-known "whistleblowers" in US history since he exposed the tobacco companies’ lies about the health risks of cigarettes.
Because of Jeffrey Wigand’s efforts that played a huge role on in the consumer awareness, government introduced the Master Settlement Agreement