Some executives build strong careers in conditions that cooperate. Robbert Rietbroek has built his in conditions that do not. Across three decades in consumer packaged goods, beverages, and packaging — spanning markets from Venezuela to Australia to the United States — he has operated through currency devaluation, social unrest and instability, mergers and acquisitions, and change management in emerging and developed markets across four continents. Those environments shaped his strengths and capabilities as a leader.
Tested Early: Growth Through Political and Economic Crisis
Rietbroek’s first major test came at Procter & Gamble, when after his initial years in Europe, he was assigned as Brand Leader for Pampers across Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador during 2001 and 2002. Venezuela at the time was in a period of social unrest and instability, leading to a more challenging business environment. Many multinationals operating in the country contracted or stalled.
Rietbroek’s division grew. In Peru, he significantly increased Pampers’ market share within that period. The results were not produced through favorable tailwinds. They came from disciplined execution in the face of conditions that removed the standard playbook.
That ability to separate controllable variables from structural noise — and to keep commercial momentum where others pause — became a recurring feature of his career.
Absorbing a Currency Shock in Australia
A decade later, at Kimberly-Clark Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Islands, Rietbroek faced a different kind of disruption: a significant currency devaluation that compressed margin and threatened input cost stability across a manufacturing-intensive business. While there he ran a Baby, Feminine and Family Care business, which included one of the largest tissue-towel mills in Asia-Pacific — in the town of Millicent, South Australia — where he also built a co-generation facility
His response was decisive. Rather than waiting for currency stabilization, he initiated a cost transformation across the division’s manufacturing and supply-chain sites — removing cost in a way that would hold regardless of where exchange rates settled. By the time the transformation was complete, operating margins had been restored.
The business simultaneously grew market leadership positions in six of eight product categories and expanded share across almost all brands. It also earned the Australian Federal Ministers Award for a Cleaner Environment — a recognition that the operational restructuring was executed with environmental discipline, not at the expense of it.
Quaker: Rebuilding a Legacy Franchise through a Pandemic
A significant brand-building chapter of Rietbroek’s career came at PepsiCo, where he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Quaker Foods North America from 2018 to the end of 2023. Quaker is a mature, multi-category franchise competing across breakfast cereals, hot oatmeal, grain-based snacks, and meal solutions.
Under Rietbroek’s leadership, the division delivered one of its best performances in 20 years. He rebuilt the core cereal franchise, expanded meal solutions through the Rice-A-Roni and Near East brands, launched Cheetos Mac and Cheese in partnership with the Frito-Lay portfolio, and grew Quaker’s snack presence through rice crisps, cakes, and Cap’n Crunch treat bars. The expansion was diversified across categories rather than dependent on a single product cycle.
In 2022, retail sales and net revenue grew, and Quaker ranked among the fastest-growing major food and beverage company above $3 billion in U.S. sales that calendar year. The result reflected a combination of brand renovation, portfolio extension, and sustained execution across a division of several thousand employees.
What a Global Record Produces
Over time, operating across four continents in five languages — Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish — sharpens an executive’s ability to distinguish between core business constraints and regional market challenges.
Rietbroek has consistently produced strong business outcomes: in favorable and unfavorable conditions, in markets with strong institutions and in markets without them, in large publicly traded multinationals, and in the highly competitive world of food and beverage, where every day is a battle on the shelf.
What Consistency in Disruption Requires
Rietbroek’s career provides a useful study in what sustained performance under pressure actually demands. Three patterns are consistent across each example.
First, he does not defer structural decisions to more favorable conditions. Second, he maintains commercial focus alongside operational change. Third, he carries P&L accountability directly with a focus on operational excellence, customer service, digitization, and financial discipline. At each organization the structure is the same: he owns the outcome, not the advisory layer around it.
Now at Graphic Packaging
As of January 1, 2026, Rietbroek is President and Chief Executive Officer of Graphic Packaging Holding Company (NYSE: GPK). The company is a global leader in sustainable consumer packaging, with operations spanning multiple continents and a portfolio serving some of the world’s largest consumer brands.
Rietbroek holds three packaging design patents, serves on the board of directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the American Forest and Paper Association, and is a member of the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He earned his Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics in 1996 and is recognized as the first Maastricht University alumnus to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
