José O. Padrón, the patriarch of Padrón Cigars has passed away overnight. He was 91 years old. José Orlando Padrón was born on June 10, 1926, in the Pinar del Rio region of Cuba. His family had been in the tobacco business since his grandfather Damaso Padrón settled in Cuba after emigrating from the Canary […]
A.J. Fernandez Cigar Company has named Selim Hanono as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) “Selim comes with incredible experience and knowledge of our industry. We have full confidence that he will help lead our company and take us to the next level. He will have our full support in order to accomplish our company’s […]
Fernando Zacarias’ hiatus from the cigar industry was a brief one. This week has come word that the former Espinosa Cigars National Sales Manager has joined E.P. Carrillo and will become the Territory Manager for the State of Florida. It was early last month when we heard that Zacarias and Espinosa Cigars were parting ways. […]
Less than a month after departing Quesada Cigars, Terence Reilly has found a new home. Today we’ve been told that Reilly will become the new Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Casa Fernandez. Casa Fernandez has somewhat quietly become a major force in the cigar industry. The company is well-known for its Aganorsa […]
The City of New Orleans has elected its first female Mayor – and it’s a name that might be familiar to many cigar enthusiasts – LaToya Cantrell. On November 18th, Cantrell won a run-off elected defeating her opponent Judge Desiree Charbonnet by getting 60% of the vote. As a member of the New Orleans City […]
Early next year, ITG Brands LLC will have a new CEO and President in Dan Carr. For the past year, Carr had been serving as President of ITG Brands. Carr is best known for his tenure at General Cigar Company where he served as its President for over five years. Carr succeeds David Taylor who […]
Today U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that Alex Azar is his choice to replace Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on his cabinet. Azar comes from the pharmaceutical industry where from 2012 to 2017, he served as President of Lilly USA, LLC, the largest affiliate of global biopharmaceutical leader Eli […]
The Fernando Zacarias era at Espinosa Cigars has come to an end. Today Espinosa Cigars announced that Zacarias, who served as the company’s national sales manager is leaving the company. The move is effective immediately. Zacarias had served as the company’s National Sales Manager since late in 2014. During his tenure, the company credited him […]
After a year out of the cigar industry, Michael Giannini is back. Giannini, best known for his tenure at General Cigar Company where he served in a variety of roles including Director of Innovation, has been named the Creative Director at Ventura Cigar Company. Throughout the past few weeks, Giannini had been making appearances at […]
The Terence Reilly era at Quesada Cigars has come to an end. Reilly has announced he is departing the company effective November 1st, 2017. Reilly had been with Quesada Cigars since 2009. He is the de-facto nephew of company patriarch Manuel “Manolo” Quesada (while a member of the family he is actually a cousin of […]
