Christos Harpantidis was appointed Senior Vice President, External Affairs of Philip Morris International (PMI) in May 2024. In this global role, he leads PMI’s external engagement efforts to build broad societal support and endorsement for Tobacco Harm Reduction and drive forward PMI’s smoke-free vision in 180 countries. He was previously Area Vice President, South East Europe, a role he assumed in February 2023. In 2003, Christos joined Papastratos, PMI’s affiliate in Greece, where he held key positions in the company’s commercial department in Greece and abroad. From 2012 to 2015, he held senior management positions in sales strategy and then the commercialization of new-generation products at PMI’s Operations Center in Lausanne. In August 2015, he became Chairman and Managing Director of Papastratos and Head of the EU South East Cluster. From 2017 to 2022, he led a € 500 million investment that turned the production facilities of Papastratos into a major production and export center of PMI's innovative tobacco products. He studied physics at Aristotle University in Greece and holds a master’s degree in economics and an MBA from Kent University, U.K.