Winds of Amcor change

Following a planned succession, Mike Schmitt will once again find himself in a president’s seat when Amcor Rigid Plastics president, Bill Long retires effective 1 July 2011.

According to Amcor, this was a planned succession with Schmitt given a senior position within the company when he joined through the 2010 Alcan Packaging acquisition where he was President of the Food Americas and Global Pharmaceutical business, a global business with sales of more than US$2 billion.

Given that for the past 17 months he has been the Senior VP and general manager of Amcor Rigid Plastics North America division, the largest part of the rigid plastics business, the appointment came as no surprise.

Ken MacKenzie (pictured), CEO of Amcor Limited says Schmitt has had extensive experience in the food and beverage plastic packaging industry, “including 17 years with Bemis and 10 years with Alcan Packaging. Since joining Amcor, he has successfully managed the North American Rigid Plastics business.”

“Bill Long has made an outstanding contribution to Amcor since joining the company in 2002 and has been instrumental in planning the management transition.”