Tobacco expertise (English version)

Jean Lafanechaire

Born in 1955, Jean joined Seita in March 1977.

7 years as extension service technician in different tobacco areas in South-West of France, working on Dark Air Cured, Burley, and developing Flue-cured production in new growing districts.
Also doing buying from farmers and industrial grading.

5 years as assistant of the Operations Director, in charge of 6 threshing lines and 7 fermentation workshops.
Also implemented a new quality control system on grading.

20 years as leaf buyer, in charge of Asia, succeeding in diversification in terms of new origins and new grades, this for all tobacco types.

Thanks to this long period on the widest range of tobaccos, Jean has got the best knowledge on all types of tobaccos grown in Asia, plus a highly valuable contacts network.

Jacques Monin

Born in 1955, Jacques, agronomist, joined Seita in February 1983.

4 years in charge of the France Center region extension service to tobacco growers.
Also doing Burley and Dark tobacco buying for the region.

4 years as leaf buyer, in charge of Virginia, Burley and Dark-fired purchasing on several key markets (USA, Canada, Italy, Thailand and Southern Africa).

8 years as chief blender in charge of blond blends, and 8 more years as "Tobaccos and Blends" Service manager (tobacco expertise and support to the Leaf, blends development, maintenance and specification, sensory analysis, value analysis on blends).
Also business owner or key users workshops leader for all tobacco information systems evolutions.

4 years as Director of the "Blends and Primaries Process" Department (part of R&D), managing three services: "Tobaccos and Blends", "Casings and Flavors" (including flavors production) and "Primaries process".

Claude Bosquin

Born in 1951, Claude joined Seita in June 1974.

10 years as responsible for tobacco raw materials imports and exports in Seita transit center (Le Havre).

10 years as designer and developer of dedicated to leaf tobaccos, specific systems for imports, exports, stocks management and usage.

6 years in charge of the implementation of the SAP Manufacturing module in all the factories of the Group, from the reengineering and the design till the final users training and the "go live", this at all steps of the industrial process (fermentation, threshing and pre-blending, primaries, secondaries).

Thanks to this wide opening on the tobacco world from raw material to final product, coupled with his expertise in Customs procedures, Claude has developed a particular ability in business process modelling and optimization, from the leaf tobacco imports till the re-exportation as finished goods.

Bernard Bregeon

Born in 1955, Bernard joined Seita in 1978.

After a 7 years experience in smoke analysis, he applied for a master degree in organic chemistry at CNAM (Paris), and obtained it after
his thesis on "Maillard reactions".

Focusing first on the blend chemistry, he developed a key knowledge on tobacco processes impacts, leading to the identification of new process markers.

Being 20 years in charge of the "Tobacco, Blend and Process" laboratories, he developed in particular a modeling tool using linear programing, highly used by R&D, for cigarettes and RYOs blends conception and optimization.

Based on his experience, Bernard acquired a strong understanding
of statistic tools and representations, as well as of inter-domains
project management tools.

Highly focusing as of the late 90s on Hoffmann compounds, Bernard extended his input to the cigarette design and its corresponding biological responses, and more specifically during 4 years
at the Head of the "Data Analysis and Experimentations" laboratories.

Along this course, Bernard had quite a few times the opportunity
to present highly relevant communications in various key scientific
events, such as "TSRC".

Alain Murat

Born in 1951, Alain, INSA Lyon engineer, joined Seita
in october 1975.

First 3 years experience in technical and maintenance services
at Morlaix cigars manufacture.

3 years at Paris headquarters as responsible of primaries
engineering projects for all factories.

6 years as central coordinator of factories processes and quality.

3 years as responsible of NTMs at Paris central R&D.

3 years in R&D at the head of the development of fabrication
processes (new processes and improvment of existing ones
for both Primaries and Secondaries).

3 years in Production direction as central header for Quality
and Processes.

2 years in R&D as director ot the Products department.

8 years in R&D as director of Blends and Primaries Processes
(first for Seita and then for the whole Altadis group), covering
three Services ("Tobaccos and blends", "Casings and flavors"
and "Primaries processes".

2 years as Development director ("Blends", "Processes"
and "Products").

2 years as R&D&Q director ("Products research", "Products development" and "Products quality").