1937-
Chairman and CEO of Philip Morris

Formative Experiences.

Born in Australia in 1937, Geoffrey C. Bible worked his way up the corporate ranks and eventually became CEO of one of the largest U.S. tobacco firms. One of his most formative experiences, however, took place far from corporate headquarters. From 1959 to 1964 he lived among Palestinian refugees while working for a United Nations relief agency, an experience that left a deep and lasting impression. "I've seen a lot of misery in my life," he recalled in an interview with Business Week in 1998. "If you see these little toddlers with flies all over their eyes, a rag over them and nothing else in 100-degree heat, you sort of get a real taste of what hunger is." He joined Philip Morris in 1968. In charge of overseas tobacco operations between 1987 and 1990, Bible championed the acquisition of local cigarette companies...