UK: Founder Cropper Departs Totally Wicked over E-mail Flap

Source from:  Tobacco Journal  06/28/2013

Chief Executive Officer Jason Cropper will leave the e-cigarette company he created after sending what Totally Wicked in a statement called inappropriate e-mails to a member of the European Parliament and an official of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). 
 
Mails sent to MEP Linda McAvan and MHRA Group Manager Jeremy Mean "question the legitimacy and motivations of both these two individuals and the organisations they represent", Totally Wicked said. The Board of Directors voted unanimously that Cropper should step down after he declined to retract his comments, the company said.

McAvan is a rapporteur, the person responsible for preparing a report, serving on the parliamentary committee that is preparing to vote on revisions to the European Union Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). Means is an e-cigarette expert involved in the MHRA's recent decision to back classification and regulation of the product as a medicine.

Totally Wicked and Cropper have been in the forefront of the opposition to pharmaceutical regulation, which is part of the revised TPD proposal from the European Commission. The company recently said it would send an e-cigarette to each of the 754 MEPs and a statement on why the product does not belong in the TPD.

Business Development Director Fraser Cropper will assume the role of CEO, Totally Wicked said. Enditem