Hank Mozingo speaks at a Tobacco Associates seminar.
By Thomas Schmid
Being one of the longest Tobacco Asia subscribers, Hank Mozingo was born in Raleigh, NC, but raised in Fairfax, VA. Thanks to his grandparents and his father, he was exposed to the tobacco business from earliest childhood. While his maternal grandparents leased out their land to tobacco growers, his paternal grandparents were tenant tobacco farmers.
Hank Mozingo
Things already started falling into place during his college years. To help with his college expenses, he took up a job with the US Tobacco Company as a part-time retail representative. “This helped build my list of industry contacts,” he explains, but insists that when he finally graduated in 1989, he still hadn’t set his eyes firmly on a future career in tobacco.
Eventually, he was called in to Tobacco Associates for an interview. He passed it with flying colors, and soon afterwards – to his big surprise – Hank was invited to join a Tobacco Associates delegation on a trip abroad.
Things proceeded rather quickly after his return. He got hired as assistant to the association’s vice president. “And just a little over a year later, in 1991, that vice president moved on to a new company, after which [Tobacco Associates] gave me the opportunity to become director of international operations. I got more involved with the day-to-day running and setting up our international programs.”
It may have been a challenge, but Hank certainly managed to grow into his role. He was appointed vice president in 1996, a position he holds to this day.
On September 20, 2015, Hank Mozingo will celebrate his 25th anniversary with Tobacco Associates, which currently represents some 2,400 US tobacco growers. He lives in Clemmons, NC, together with his wife of 15 years, Leslie, and their two kids, daughter Shelby (14) and son Jarrett (12).