Steve Rogel, the Weyerhaeuser CEO who led the company’s hostile takeover of Willamette Industries and then shaped the Federal Way company’s downsizing, will give up day-to-day operations at the forest products company.

Dan Fulton, who assumed the job of president of the company earlier this year, will become CEO and a member of the board effective immediately, Weyerhaeuser announced Thursday. He previously led Weyerhaeuser’s real estate company.

Rogel, 65, remains chairman in a nonexecutive role. Executives at Weyerhaeuser are supposed to retire at 65, but the company’s board asked Rogel to stay until he could name a new CEO. He agreed to remain until the end of 2009 at the latest.

“Steve Rogel has guided Weyerhaeuser through a period of unprecedented change with integrity, vision and dedication,” Charles Williamson, lead director on Weyerhaeuser’s board, said in a news release. “As we chart our course forward at this important juncture in the company’s history, it is critical for us to have Steve guiding the continuing implementation of our long-term strategy. The board looks forward to ongoing benefit from his business savvy, wisdom and insight.”

The change didn’t come as a big shock. Rogel and Weyerhaeuser have been talking about finding a successor for several years.

Steven Chercover, an analyst with D.A. Davidson in Lake Oswego, Ore., said Fulton’s promotion to president in January signaled that he was the heir apparent.

“Most of us on (Wall) Street have had lots of exposure to Dan,” Chercover said. “It’s good. They’ve found someone within to lead the company, and we don’t have to get to know a new guy.”

Fulton was president of Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co., which operates home building companies around the country including Quadrant Homes in Washington. He has been with the company for more than 30 years.

Weyerhaeuser also held its annual meeting with shareholders at its Federal Way headquarters on Thursday. One shareholder group pushed for the company to separate the jobs of CEO and chairman, saying it provided better oversight of the company’s financial operations. That motion did not pass a shareholder vote. But this move separates those positions – at least for now.

Rogel was the first Weyerhaeuser chief executive hired outside the company and only the second leader without ties to the Weyerhaeuser family. He was recruited from Portland-based Willamette Industries in 1997 to replace Jack Creighton, who retired after 27 years with the company. Rogel went after his former employer in a hostile takeover in 2001 and won. Then he spent the next six years trying to create the right mix of mills and products.

The company has had a rough couple of years. The markets for its core products – wood, paper and boxes – have seen falling prices and more competition. Weyerhaeuser began shedding operations several years ago, including mills and timberlands around the South Sound. Last year, the company spun off its fine paper operations to Canadian producer Domtar. Last month, executives announced that the containerboard packaging and recycling business would be sold to Memphis, Tenn.-based International Paper for $6 billion. The sagging real estate market is making the remaining businesses more challenging, Fulton said Thursday at the company’s annual meeting.

And now it’s Fulton’s job to chart the future of the company.

“It has been a natural transition from my standpoint,” Rogel said following the annual meeting. “Dan is a well-respected leader in the company.”

Marcelene Edwards: 253-597-8638

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