ITC board member to sit on RAI board

Reynolds American Inc. said yesterday that its board of directors had elected Robert Lerwill, the retired CEO of the Aegis Group, as a Class II director, effective immediately.

Lerwill, who fills the board vacancy created by the death of Sir Nicholas Scheele in July 2014, will serve on the board’s compensation and leadership development committee.

He is one of five RAI board members designated by Brown & Williamson Holdings, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco.

Lerwill was CEO of the Aegis Group, a global communications, media and market research company, from 2005 to 2008, and was a non-executive director of that group from 2000 to 2005.

He sat on the board of directors of BAT from 2005 to 2013, and currently sits on the boards of directors of ITC Limited, DJI (Holdings), Spire Healthcare and Impello.

“We welcome Robert to the board, and we look forward to working with him as RAI continues its strategy to transform the tobacco industry,” said Thomas C. Wajnert, chairman of the board.