Jim Porter III, Respected Industry Veteran, Passes Away At 74 James B. Porter Ill, a distinguished leader in the global paper and packaging industry, died December 3 at his home in Key Largo, Florida. He was 74. Renowned for his
the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, underscoring his commitment to both technical forestry knowledge and strategic business leadership. He began his career in the forestry and paperboard business with Menasha Corporation - working first in timberlands, later rising to general management withing Menasha’s pa- perboard operations. In 1993, Jim joined Southern Container and helped build the Solvay Paperboard Mill as Vice President. This mill ultimately had three paper machines with more than 800,000 tons of capacity and was one of the most effi- cient mills in the world at the time. Jim and his incredible team grew Southern Container into a very well-managed business - the best in the industry at the time. As President and Chief Operating Officer of Southern Container, he oversaw operations during a pivotal era and in 2008, when RockTenn Company acquired Southern
strategic vision and decades-long commitment to operational ex- cellence, he built a 46-year ca- reer spanning forestry, contain- erboard, corrugated packaging, and global business development before retiring at the end of 2020. Jim earned a bachelor’s de-
Jim Porter III
gree in forest management from the University of Missou- ri and completed graduate studies in business including
Container, Jim joined Rock Tenn’s senior leadership team. Under his leadership, the company greatly expanded: what had been a roughly $2 billion-scale company at the time of acquisition grew into an industry heavyweight with about $18 billion in net sales over approximately a dozen years. Then after the merger of Rock Tenn and MeadWestvaco, becoming WestRock, Jim served as President of several key divisions - including Corrugated Packaging and Pa- per Solutions - and ultimately as President, Business Development & Latin America. In that role, he led global fiber procurement and oversaw WestRock’s operations and expansion in Latin American markets (no- tably Brazil) and its joint-venture operations in Mexico with Grupo Gondi where he re- mained on their Board of Directors follow- ing his retirement. Jim’s many industry accolades include the following: In 2018, Jim was honored with the RISI Lifetime Achievement Award- a testament to his longterm impact in the packaging in- dustry. In the same year, he was inducted into the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation (ICPF) ‘s Circle of Distinguished Leaders, marking his status among the top echelon of industry executives. He also received the Pulp and Paper Safety Association Executive Eagle award in 2017, and he is a past chairman of the Fibre Box Association. He is a past chairman of the Containerboard Sector of the American Forest and Paper Association and a past member of the Board of Directors for Cor- rugated Packaging Alliance, the Internation- al Corrugated Case Association and World
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December 29, 2025
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