Thomas J. Borelli



= Biography =

Dr. Thomas J. Borelli Ph.D. was the manager of Philip Morris Corporate Scientific Affairs Department circa 1990. Dr. Borelli has a doctorate in biochemistry from the New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. Before entering this position with Philip Morris, Dr. Borelli was a technical specialist for the Products Safety and External Technical Affairs Division of General Foods World Wide. Dr. Borelli also has served as a science consultant for the Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives. (DOCS 000033) Thomas J. Borelli worked for Philip Morris Corporate Services, Inc. in Brussels. (PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996)

As of November 2010, Thomas Borelli was a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Borelli is a managing partner with Action Fund Management, an investment advisory firm, and a portfolio managerr for the Free Enterprise Action Fund.

As of 2012 Borelli was working at the right-wing think tank FreedomWorks as a Senior Fellow and an "expert" on the coal industry.

Articles by Thomas Borelli
The Anti-Capitalism Virus, National Policy Analysis, Feb. 2006 (a publication of the National Center for Public Policy Research)

Tobacco industry documents
A brief internal email from Tom Borelli (then Manager of Corporate Scientific Affairs for Philip Morris) relates PM's efforts to influence a scientific meeting about secondhand smoke (environmental tobacco smoke, or ETS). It reveals the subsequent scorn the company received, and the company's future plans to find ways to influence the group.

Borelli arranged for PM to have a presence at a 1989 toxicology forum session on secondhand smoke. He wrote about the meeting afterwards,

"My contact at ILSI [International Life Sciences Institute, presumptive organizer of the forum] told me that the person from NCI [National Cancer Institute, a federal government cancer research organization] was not pleased with the TOX forum ETS session. That illustrates what a good job we did."

Borelli describes the anger that the NCI attendee had at PM's attendance:

"Unfortunately, the NCI representative did not stop there but went on to say that if the tox forum allows PM to become a member, the NCI will remove itself from the advisory committee. It was also mentioned that if I want a career in the science/health issues, I should consider who I work for."

Borelli discusses how PM could continue to try and influence this group, and proposes funneling sponsorship money through a PM subsidiary as a way to force the group to continue working with PM:

"Thus if everything remains the same the tox forum is a one shot deal and I get blacklisted. I think it is time to move with the PM Co., Inc strategy for sponsorship of outside groups (remember the proposal I wrote). Of course that would raise the stakes of forcing these groups to accept PM and I guess they could choose to keep us out. But then they go broke. The only other option is to funnel money through KGF [Kraft General Foods, a PM subsidiary] but then we loose [sic] control of the issues..."

Anti-regulatory and Climate activism
Together with Steven J. Milloy, Borelli founded a mutual fund called the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a mutual fund that aimed to promote an anti-regulatory agenda, in 2005. Milloy subsequently left the organization. On July 20, 2009, the Free Enterprise Action Fund merged with the Congressional Effect Fund and Borelli became a portfolio manager for the Congressional Effect Fund.

Borelli has been an activist at shareholder meetings opposing company involvement in climate change legislation. His targets have included General Electric, PG&E, Dow Chemical, Caterpillar, John Deere, and Duke Energy.