Peter C. Browning

Peter C. Browning has a wide range of experience in business.  Beginning as a sales trainee, he spent 24 years with the Continental Can Company, last serving as Executive Vice President – Operating Officer.  He joined National Gypsum Company in 1989, where he first served as President-Gold Bond Division, and then in September 1990, was elected President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of National Gypsum Company, seeing the company through and out of bankruptcy.

Peter Browning joined Sonoco Products Company (a $3 billion global packaging company) in November 1993 where he last served as President and Chief Executive Officer, before retiring in July 2000.  In September 2000, he was elected to the position of non-executive Chairman, Nucor Corporation, the largest steel producer in North America. In March, 2002, he was appointed Dean of the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte where he served until May 2005.

Browning, 64, is a native of Boston, MA.  A 1963 graduate of Colgate University with an AB in history, he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1976. The Harvard Business School prepared a case study regarding his success in effecting changes at Continental's White Cap Division.  A case study has also been written on his experience at National Gypsum for use at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of North Carolina.

Browning is a member of the Board of Directors of Acuity Brands, Inc.; EnPro Industries, Inc.; Lowe’s Companies, Inc.; Nucor Corporation; The Phoenix Companies, Inc.; and Wachovia Corporation.  In the fall of 2004 Board Alert Magazine selected Mr. Browning as one of eight “Outstanding Directors of the Year.”

Browning is a lifetime member of The University of Chicago, Council on the Graduate School of Business; The Conference Board; and served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers.

He currently serves on the Executive Board of the Mecklenburg County Council, Boy Scouts of America; the Board of Museum of the New South; the Board of the
Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens; and the Board of Trustees, Presbyterian Hospital Foundation.

Browning and his wife, Kathy, have four children and four grandchildren.  His interests remain in outdoor activities, including climbing, scuba diving and sea kayaking, and reading, particularly history.