Michael Voegele

Chief Digital & Information Officer, Philip Morris

Search every verified Michael Voegele interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Michael Voegele, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Philip Morris International, discussed the company's digital transformation in a July 2021 interview. He stated that the company aims to replace cigarettes with science-based, smoke-free products, having invested roughly $8 billion in their development and commercialization. Voegele described his role as having three strategic pillars: simplifying the legacy application footprint, introducing state-of-the-art technology such as APIs, cloud, and AI/ML, and ensuring that transformation creates better products and experiences for customers and consumers. Voegele emphasized that culture change requires a horizontal view from the executive team and heavy investment in training. He said he would not present "digital transformation" to the board, but rather explain how technology can accelerate business strategy. He noted that a large portion of the organization was shifted from the legacy smoking business toward building consumer-direct awareness of the smoke-free category. Voegele also stated that the company relies on technology for age verification and device-locking to prevent youth access to smoke-free products, and that data work must start from real business problems with proper anonymization and compliance.