Sonoco Products Co., Hartsville, S.C., USA, a global diversified packaging company, has elected Richard G. Kyle to its board. Kyle is president, CEO, and board member of The Timken Co., a $3 billion global company headquartered in North Canton, Ohio. Timken engineers, manufactures, and markets Timken® bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain, and related products, and offers a spectrum of power system rebuild and repair services. 

Prior to being elected president and CEO in 2014, Kyle served as COO of Timken's Bearings and Power Transmission Group; previously he was group president responsible for the company's aerospace and steel segments, as well as the engineering and technology organizations.

"We're very pleased to have Rich join our Board. He brings tested executive leadership along with strong manufacturing and technical expertise working with diversified markets around the world, which is extremely important to Sonoco's global consumer, industrial, and protective solutions businesses," commented Harris E. DeLoach Jr., executive chairman of Sonoco's BOD. 

Kyle received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and later earned his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Prior to joining Timken in 2006, he held management positions with Cooper Industries and later was VP of operations for a division of Hubbell Inc.