In October 1999, RockTenn went outside its ranks for a new CEO, hiring James A. Rubright, who had previously been the head of the pipeline group and energy services business of Sonat, Inc. Currey handed over the chairmanship to Rubright as well in January 2000. Later in 2000, Shuster, having been passed over for the CEO position, left the company. Rubright accelerated the pace of restructuring at RockTenn through the closure of a number of under-performing plants. He also shifted the company's emphasis away from the slow-growing recycled paperboard side and toward the areas with higher growth potential: the folding carton and plastics packaging businesses, as well as the burgeoning merchandising display operation, which by the early 2000s was the U.S. leader in point-of-purchase displays.