When Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK) named Robbert Rietbroek its President and Chief Executive Officer on January 1, 2026, the company gained a leader whose career spans four continents, five languages, and some of the most recognized consumer brands in the world — including Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, and most recently Primo Brands Corporation.
Caption: Robbert Rietbroek is President and Chief Executive Officer of Graphic Packaging. He brings 30 years of leadership experience in consumer packaged goods and beverage companies, with senior roles at Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo, and Primo Brands Corporation.
A Career Built Across Continents and Categories
Rietbroek began his career in 1996 at Procter & Gamble, where he would spend more than 15 years working across Europe, Latin America, and North America. His early roles in the Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg region placed him at the center of brand management for Ariel and Pampers, where he led campaigns that included the largest door-to-door sampling initiative in P&G Laundry history in the Netherlands of that time.
Transferred to Latin America in early 2001, he led the Pampers brand across Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Operating during a period of instability, Rietbroek delivered sales and market share growth. .
His North American work at P&G included an expansion of the global diaper portfolio including the launch of a Pampers basic tier, which generated significant new-product sales across 30-plus countries and was recognized as one of the best innovations in Global Baby Care at the time.
Rietbroek also managed the Crest and Oral-B brands across multiple geographies for a period of six years, based in Cincinnati and Geneva.
Category Leadership at Kimberly-Clark and PepsiCo
Rietbroek joined Kimberly-Clark in 2012 as Vice President and Global Sector Leader for Baby & Child Care, an $8 billion division encompassing Huggies, Pull-Ups, Goodnites, and Little Swimmers. He shaped the division’s global strategy and set the business up for multiple years of double-digit organic growth.
As CEO and Managing Director of Kimberly-Clark Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands from 2013 to 2015, he delivered market leadership positions in six of eight product categories. He also executed a cost transformation that generated considerable manufacturing and supply-chain savings, resulting in increased operating margins during his tenure. The business earned the Australian Federal Ministers Award for a Cleaner Environment and the ABA100 Australian Business Award for Innovation and Technology.
He moved to PepsiCo in 2015 as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands, where he led a 2,000-plus employee operation spanning Pepsi Beverages ANZ, Smith’s Snackfood Australia, and Bluebird New Zealand. In 2018, he returned to the United States as SVP and General Manager of Quaker Foods North America — an externally reported PepsiCo division at the time. Over five-plus years, Quaker delivered very strong performance, and in 2022, Quaker ranked as the fastest-growing food and beverage company above $3 billion in U.S. retail sales that year, as measured by IRI/Circana.
Leading a Complex Merger Before Joining Graphic Packaging
Prior to his current role, Rietbroek served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of Primo Water Corporation beginning January 2024, and subsequently was elected as CEO and Board Director of Primo Brands Corporation following its formation. He led the combination of Primo Water and BlueTriton — a former Nestlé waters business — completing the transaction in under five months from announcement in June 2024 to close in November 2024, when the new company was launched. The deal created the No. 1 branded bottled water company in the United States by dollar share.
Stewardship at Graphic Packaging
Graphic Packaging is a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging. Rietbroek is leading the company into its next phase as an executive who has managed multibillion-dollar P&L responsibilities across categories ranging from personal care to food and beverages — with an emphasis on driving growth and operational discipline.
He holds three packaging design patents and serves on the board of directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the American Forest and Paper Association. He is also a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council.
A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, Rietbroek earned his Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Maastricht University School of Business & Economics in 1996. He is distinguished as the first Maastricht University alumnus to be elected to and serve as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
