Sonoco announced that Chief Operating Officer Rodger Fuller plans to retire next month after working at the company for more than 40 years.
Fuller will depart on Feb. 28. Sonoco does not plan to appoint a new COO. With that change, the president of each business unit will report directly to CEO Howard Coker.
“Rodger is an exceptional business operator and widely respected leader in the paper and packaging industry. He has always been willing to take on new challenges and drive for improved operational and financial performance for our company,” Coker said in a news release.
Sonoco hired Fuller as a customer service representative in 1985, and he advanced through leadership roles such as executive vice president of global operations. He became COO in 2020, according to the company. Last summer, Fuller also took on the role of interim CEO for Sonoco Metal Packaging EMEA following the death of Tomás López, the previous CEO for Switzerland-based metal packaging company Eviosys, which Sonoco acquired for $3.8 billion in December 2024.
Fuller stepped back from that interim role late last year when Sonoco announced in November that it would again restructure its business units, concurrently naming new segment leaders. This involved consolidating its metal packaging and rigid paper containers businesses into a single consumer packaging segment. In another notable change to its structure last year, Sonoco divested its flex-therm business to Toppan Holdings for $1.8 billion in April 2025.
“It’s been my honor to work along-side so many talented people at Sonoco and participate in the extraordinary progress we have achieved during my tenure in transforming the company into a global leader in consumer and industrial metal and paper packaging,” Fuller said in the news release.
Fuller has also been active during his career with industry organizations including The Paper and Packaging Board and the American Forest & Paper Association.
