The longest-tenured employee of La Palina Cigars is no longer with the company.

Courtney Smith, who has been with the company from over five years, has resigned. Owner Bill Paley sent a short email to halfwheel indicating Smith resigned as “production and marketing manger” and that “No reason was provided for her departure.” Her LinkedIn page indicates Smith began with the company in Nov. 2009 and served as “vp.”

La Palina was a brand of Congress Cigar Company, which Bill’s grandfather, Sam Paley, owned in the early 20th century. William S. Paley, Bill’s father, ran the company and began acquiring radio stations to help for advertising. Those radio stations would eventually become CBS. and the cigar brand was shut down until Bill Paley resurrected it in 2009, with cigars arriving in 2010.

The company’s c-suite has undergone a massive transition in the last year. It started with adding a CFO in early 2014 and then took a more dramatic turn when Andrew Brennan, who had served as the company’s vp of sales since 2012, parted ways with the company in August. He was replaced by Bob Moreno, formerly of XIKAR and E.P. Carrillo.

Smith previously managed one of the Washington, D.C. area-based Signature Cigars locations, which her family owns.

Paley did not immediately respond to an email seeking further comment.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.