The Trump administration has placed a former tobacco executive at the helm of legislative affairs inside the very agency tasked with protecting Americans from the consequences of smoking.
Stephen Sayle, a government affairs strategist who served as U.S. vice president of corporate affairs at Fontem Ventures between 2017 and 2018, was quietly named CDC deputy director for legislative affairs in March 2026. Fontem Ventures is a subsidiary of Imperial Brands, the British multinational tobacco corporation behind the e-cigarette brand blu and the oral nicotine pouch brand Zone.
