Airton Hentschke took over as senior vice president and chief operating officer (COO) at Universal Corp following the retirement of Keith Brewer on 31 March, the leaf merchant said.

Hentschke has 24 years of experience in leaf operations at Universal, where he served as executive vice president of Universal Leaf Tobacco since 2013. Brewer retired after 38 years at the company based in Richmond, Va. He ran the company’s global tobacco operations since 2006.
Universal sales in the fiscal year ended 31 March, 2014, were USD 2.5 billion (EUR 2.3 billion) with operations in 30 countries.