Mike Copperman Named CRA Executive Director

Mike Copperman has been promoted to the executive director of Cigar Rights of America (CRA), a cigar industry trade group.

Copperman, who currently serves as director of legislative and regulatory affairs, has been with the organization since 2011. Prior to that, he was the owner of Bethesda Tobacco in Bethesda Md., and once served on the board of the IPCPR, the organization now known as the Premium Cigar Association. He will continue to serve as director of legislative and regulatory affairs while also being the executive director.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mike as the new Executive Director of CRA. His wealth of experience and dedication to our cause make him the ideal leader to advance our mission and navigate the evolving landscape of premium cigar advocacy,” said Robert Levin, president of CRA and owner of Holt’s/Ashton, in a press release.

The CRA’s executive director role has remained vacant for three years following the departure of Glynn Loope in late 2020.

Once advertised as the cigar industry’s version of the NRA, a firearms organization with a strong consumer presence, the CRA has undergone a transformation of late.

While the organization still offers memberships for consumers, it has been much clearer that its funding mostly comes from roughly 10-family owned cigar companies. These companies funded a nearly half-million dollar legal initiative that ultimately led to the most recent victory in Cigar Association of America et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al., the seven-year-old lawsuit filed against FDA’s deeming regulations. The CRA has also been more active in releasing cigar samplers that contain cigars from those aforementioned companies. Those companies donate the cigars, which are then sold to retailers, and all wholesale profits are donated back to CRA.