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Jon Huber, Formerly of C.A.O., Creates New Cigar Company

David Savona
Posted: February 22, 2011

Jon Huber, the former director of lifestyle marketing for C.A.O. International Inc., has formed a new cigar company with three other former employees of C.A.O. The new venture is called Crowned Heads LLC.

Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, where C.A.O. was located until it was moved to Virginia, Crowned Heads consists of Huber, Mike Conder, formerly C.A.O.'s senior VP of marketing; Michael Trebing, who served as C.A.O.'s creative media manager, and Nancy Heathman, who was C.A.O.'s graphic designer.

"It's going to be very different from what we did at C.A.O.," said Huber, who said Crowned Heads would be a boutique company that eschews titles, offices and cubicles. The company has begun to meet with tobacco brokers to develop a brand and by year's end it hopes to have a cigar with five sizes on the market. Huber said that having a cigar ready for the industry trade show in July was a "possibility, but not a probability," and said he would try to take cigar smokers "behind the scenes" to see how the company develops its products along the way.

For more, see today's Cigar Insider.