Maura Payne

Maura Payne, also known as "Maura Ellis," is a public relations employee for R.J. Reynolds. In 2008 the company is known as Reynolds American, Inc. She often serves as a company spokesperson, and has worked for the company since at least 1981. In 2009, she was listed as Vice President of Communications at Reynolds American

In 1988, when Arizona's Board of Pharmacy asked RJR to voluntarily remove the new, "smokeless" Premier Cigarette from the market until testing could be done to determine whether it was a drug delivery device, Maura Payne stated that the company had no plans to withdraw Premier. RJR eventually pulled Premier from the market.

In 1990, in response to information that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was going to declare secondhand smoke a known human carcinogen, Ms. Payne stated to the Greenboro News and Record, ""We think this is a leaked document to further an anti-smoking political 'agenda.'"

In 1991, her goals included convincing employers to accommodate smoking rather than making their facilities entirely smoke-free, issuing communications pieces and strategies to highlight the "unfairness" of federal excise taxes on cigarettes, and to help other departments at RJR, like marketing and R&D, "avoid negative issues and maximizing positive messages" about cigarettes and smoking

Biography
She attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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