Teen Shareholder Fights Big Tobacco at Altria's Annual Meeting

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - April 22, 2004 - The Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), a national organization that works to build communities that invest in youth, is sponsoring a group of teens joining hundreds of others from around the world to fight Big Tobacco and end smoking among youth by attending and protesting as shareholders at Altria's annual stockholder meeting in East Hanover, NJ on April 29th.

The teens are seeking to eliminate teen smoking, and to force the tobacco giant into responsible marketing and behavior, both here in the U.S. and in growing overseas markets such as the Pacific Rim. They are representative of a new type of youth activism that is on the rise across the country. Over the last 2 years, as stockholder activism has taken on new vigor in the wake of the corporate scandals, community leaders are working "inside" corporate Boardrooms hoping to effect change.

The leader of the YLI group, Board Member Ashley Hu, exemplifies the global nature of the protest. Ashley is a 17-year-old native of China who moved to the US seven years ago, and who wants Altria to stop pushing tobacco in America and in her native land.

"I thought smoking was normal as I grew up outside of Shanghai," she says. "Everybody smoked - at home, at restaurants, everywhere." Her paternal grandfather had died of lung cancer, and her father still smokes. "Now Asia is the biggest growth market for Altria and other tobacco companies. It makes me angry that this company promotes smoking as something fun and cool, but that smoking cost my grandfather his life. Children in China and America deserve more responsible behavior."

As a founding member of YO! Mateo, (San Mateo County Youth Tobacco Coalition) Ashley has also run "sting" operations against retailers who sell tobacco to underage customers, helping to toughen penalties for the sellers along the way.

Ashley's activism makes her parents nervous at times. She says, "They tell me, 'You can't do this kind of thing in China. You can get arrested.' I told my mom that this is why she brought me to America, because it is a free country."

Some protestors will be inside the actual meeting, as shareholders, bringing their demands to the corporate chiefs, while others will gather by the hundreds outside. This protest illustrates a key Youth Leadership Institute goal ‚ promoting young activist voices so that teens and young adults can become the new leaders not only of the future, but of today as well.