Packaging Corporation of America announced a series of leadership changes Wednesday as it disclosed CFO Robert Mundy will retire.
Mundy will step down May 1 and stay with the company in an advisory role until his scheduled retirement date of March 1, 2026. He has been CFO since 2015.
Starting May 1, Kent Pflederer will become the new CFO. He joined the company in 2007 as general counsel.
“Bob has been instrumental to PCA’s growth and success over the last ten years. As a 45-year industry veteran, he brought considerable operational and strategic expertise to complement his leadership of our finance function,” CEO Mark Kowlzan said in a statement.
Reflecting on Mundy’s successor, Kowlzan added, “Kent has been a member of our senior leadership team for 18 years as a trusted advisor to our board of directors and me and has significantly contributed to the development and implementation of PCA’s strategy.”
In addition, PCA’s Executive Vice President of Corrugated Products Tom Hassfurther has been named company president. He joined the company in 1977, has led the corrugated products business since 2009, and is a frequent speaker on quarterly earnings calls. In his new role, Hassfurther still will direct the corrugated products business in addition to overseeing PCA’s strategic growth efforts.
Kowlzan said in the statement that Hassfurther has been a key driver of PCA’s profitable revenue growth strategy.
“Tom has had a remarkable 45-plus-year career with PCA ... and was quickly promoted to senior-level roles of increasing responsibility,” Kowlzan said. “Tom will now lead the next phase of our growth strategy. He will be responsible for allocation of capital to drive our business in support of our customers and continue to lead acquisition opportunities.”
D. Ray Shirley, who has been PCA’s senior vice president of corporate engineering and process technology since 2019, will take on Hassfurther’s prior role of EVP of corrugated products. He has been with the company since 1996 and has held multiple roles related to containerboard and corrugated products. He will continue to oversee the company’s engineering and technology organization. Kowlzan said Shirley’s contributions “have led to best-in-class production capabilities.”
Packaging manufacturers have made many senior leadership changes in the last two years, including at the CEO level. PCA’s reshuffle stands out because all the positions will be filled by existing employees who will be elevated.
In a Wednesday night memo to investors, Michael Roxland, senior paper and packaging analyst at Truist Securities, said the nature of these moves reflects PCA’s “deep talent pool and best-in-class culture and execution.” Management takes a hands-on approach, he added, and passes along institutional knowledge to its home-grown future leaders.
“Senior management are subject matter experts who are in the process of equipping the next generation of leaders with what they’ve learned over the last 40+ years ensuring continuity when they retire,” Roxland said.
