Peter Konieczny - Purdue Distinguished Engineering Alumni/Alumnae - Purdue University

Peter Konieczny

Chief Executive Officer, Amcor
MSME ‘90

Peter Konieczny arrived at Purdue as a Fullbright Scholar in 1988 after a long and significantly delayed flight from Germany. He spoke limited English, and he was nervous and anxious.

“I spent my first night sleeping on sofa cushions on the floor of an apartment belonging to a visiting German professor,” he said. The next day, he sorted out his living situation and pushed himself to meet new people. He embraced his two-year appointment at Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, where his IBM-funded research would center on noise prediction of low-noise centrifugal bowers. “I adjusted my perspective, began to enjoy the broader platform for personal growth, and realized the main challenge was holding onto this chance, which ultimately became my gateway to an exciting international career.”

Today, Konieczny is based in Zurich, Switzerland, as the CEO of Amcor plc, a packaging firm that serves the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device, and home and personal care industries. He first joined the company in 2004, managing the sale of White Cap, Amcor’s $250 million metal and plastic closures business. For the next five years, he served as president of Chicago-based Silgan White Cap, the closures division of Silgan Holdings, where he grew global revenue to $700 million. He rejoined Amcor in 2010, managing the $1.2 billion folding carton business and doubling its profits within five years. He then moved to Amcor’s flexibles group to manage all activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and later also Latin America (LATAM). He grew profits in EMEA by 40% in five years and turned around operations in LATAM. He supported the acquisition of the Bemis Company in Wisconsin, a $4.5 billion flexible packaging group.

Konieczny advanced to chief commercial officer in 2020 and to CEO in 2024. Under his leadership in 2025, Amcor acquired Evansville-based Berry Global, which posted revenues of around $10 billion. Now boasting 70,000+ employees, revenues exceeding $24 billion, and operations in 200 locations across 40 countries, Amcor is the world’s largest consumer packaging business.

Even though it has been almost 36 years since Konieczny earned his Purdue degree, his research remains relevant. With more than 4,000 downloads, his 1990 best paper from the National Noise Control Conference is still the second-most frequently downloaded work from the Herrick E-Pubs site.

“Studying abroad at Purdue helped me become independent, culturally aware, adaptable, and globally competitive,” he said.

In fact, many of those soft skills gave him an edge when he interviewed for his first professional job as a management consultant. “Due to thorough preparation, I secured a position with a corporate environment that was distinctly different from my academic experience,” he said, adding that “the resilience, focus, and determination fostered at Purdue” made him a well-rounded candidate.

Konieczny, who was honored as a Purdue Outstanding Mechanical Engineer in 2021, said one of the most valuable lessons he learned at Purdue was how to maintain balance. “While work could be demanding, it was equally enjoyable and fulfilling — a lesson of great significance.”

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