Sonoco COO to retire after 40 years at company

Sonoco Products Co. has announced that Chief Operating Officer Rodger Fuller plans to retire Feb. 28 after more than 40 years with the Hartsville, South Carolina-based packaging company.

Photo courtesy of Sonoco

Sonoco does not intend to name a new COO. Instead, the presidents of each business unit will report directly to President and CEO Howard Coker.

“Rodger is an exceptional business operator and widely respected leader in the paper and packaging industry,” Coker says. “He has always been willing to take on new challenges and drive for improved operational and financial performance for our company.

Fuller joined Sonoco in 1985 as a customer service representative and held a series of leadership roles over the course of his career. He was named COO in 2020 and has been responsible for the company’s global consumer and industrial operations as well as its diversified businesses and information technology.

Recently, Fuller stepped in as interim CEO of Sonoco’s Metal Packaging EMEA business, established after the company’s nearly $4 billion acquisition of Eviosys in late 2024.

“I want to express our deepest gratitude to Rodger for his extraordinary leadership and unwavering commitment to Sonoco over the past four decades and we wish him well in his next chapter,” Coker says.

Before becoming COO, Fuller was executive vice president of Sonoco’s Global Operations; senior vice president of Global Consumer Packaging, Display and Packaging and Protective Solutions; senior vice president of Paper and Engineered Careers and other senior leadership roles in both North America and Europe.

“It’s been my honor to work alongside 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 says.

Throughout his career, Fuller has been active in numerous industry and community organizations, including serving on the board of the Sonoco Foundation, The Paper and Packaging Board, the American Forest & Paper Association, the Hartsville United Way Board, the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics Foundation and was active with the American Heart Association.

He is a graduate of Berry College in Rome, Georgia, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and MBA from Emory University in Atlanta.