Charles Westfield Coker (born May 10, 1933) is the former president and CEO of

Sonoco Products Company Founded in 1899, Sonoco Products Company () is a United States-based international provider of diversified consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and packaging supply chain services and the world's largest producer of co ...

Hartsville, South Carolina Hartsville is the largest city in Darlington County, South Carolina, United States. It was chartered on December 11, 1891. The population was 7,764 at the 2010 census. Hartsville was chosen as an All-America City in 1996 and again in 2016. Harts ...

, United States. He also served as a director of

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

Sara Lee Corporation The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht ...

, HanesBrands Inc., Springs Industries, and

Carolina Power & Light Company Carolina Power & Light (CP&L), later doing business as Progress Energy Inc., was an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution utility based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company was founded on July 13, 1908 as the result of the merge ...

(now Progress Energy Inc.), and as chairman of the board of Hollings Cancer Center at the

Medical University of South Carolina The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a public medical school in South Carolina. It opened in 1824 in Charleston as a small private college aimed at training physicians and has since established hospitals and medical facilities acr ...

. Along with being initiated into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame, Coker has been granted South Carolina's highest philanthropic honor, the

Order of the Palmetto The Order of the Palmetto is the highest civilian honor awarded by the Governor of South Carolina. It is awarded to South Carolinians who demonstrate extraordinary lifetime achievement, service and contributions of national or statewide significance ...

. Coker is the son of Charles W. and Elizabeth Howard Coker and the great-grandson of S.C. Business Hall of Fame honoree Major

James Lide Coker Major James Lide Coker (January 3, 1837 in Society Hill, South Carolina – June 25, 1918 in Hartsville, South Carolina) was a businessman, merchant, industrialist, Christian philanthropist, and Civil War veteran, and the founder of Sonoco Product ...

, who founded

Coker College Coker University is a private university in Hartsville, South Carolina. It was founded in 1908 and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Coker's sports teams, nicknamed the Cobras, compete in NCAA Division II. Histo ...

and Sonoco after the Coker farm was destroyed in March 1865. Founded as a paper mill, Sonoco is now one of the world's major producers of different types of commercial and consumer product

packaging Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a co ...

. When Charlie Coker succeeded his father as president in 1970, Sonoco had annual sales of $125 million, there were 6,000 employees, and its operations totaled 61. By 1998, when he moved from chief executive officer and chairman of the board, Sonoco had annual sales of $2.56 billion and its 16,500 employees were stationed at more than 275 locations in 85 countries on five continents. After attending

Woodberry Forest School Woodberry Forest School is a private, all-male boarding school located in Woodberry Forest, Madison County, Virginia, in the United States. Woodberry's current enrollment is 405. Students come from 28 U.S. states (plus the District of Columbia ...

in Orange, Virginia, Coker received an A.B. in history from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1955 after completing a 164-page senior thesis titled "

Coleman Livingston Blease Coleman Livingston Blease (October 8, 1868 – January 19, 1942) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 89th governor of South Carolina from 1911 to 1915, and as a United States senator from 1925 to 1931. Blease was ...

– South Carolina Demagogue." He later received an M.B.A. from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. Coker is married to South Carolina civic leader Joan F. Sasser, and they have six children: Charles, Ellen, Howard, Carrie, Margaret, and Thomas, and 20 grandchildren.

References

Sara Lee Corporation - Board of Directors
Retrieved on 13 April 2006

Retrieved on 7 February 2007

Retrieved on 7 February 2007
Forbes Bio
Retrieved on 7 February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Coker, Charles W. 1933 births Living people Princeton University alumni Harvard Business School alumni American chief executives Woodberry Forest School alumni