John Watson steps down after eight years
Chevron (ticker: CVX) is changing the guard, and chairman and CEO John Watson will retire on February 1.
Source: Forbes
Watson has worked at Chevron for 37 years, and has been chairman and CEO since 2010. He joined Chevron in 1980 as a financial analyst and went on to hold financial, analytical and supervisory positions before being appointed president of Chevron Canada Limited in 1996. In 1998, he was named a corporate vice president with responsibility for strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions.
In 2000, Watson led the company’s integration effort following the Chevron-Texaco merger and then became the corporation’s chief financial officer. In 2005, he became president of International Exploration and Production. In April 2009, he was named vice chairman of the company, before being elected chairman and CEO in September of that year.
New Chief Executive Michael Wirth brings downstream experience
Source: Chevron
Michael K. Wirth, the current vice chairman and executive vice president, will be promoted to replace Watson. According to Chevron’s press release, “Wirth joined Chevron in 1982 as a design engineer. Since that time, he advanced through a number of engineering, construction and operations positions. Wirth was named vice chairman of the board of directors in February 2017. He is also executive vice president of Midstream and Development, a position he has held since 2016.
“Previously, he was executive vice president of Downstream & Chemicals for nearly a decade. Prior to that he served as president of Global Supply and Trading and president of Marketing for Chevron’s Asia/Middle East/Africa business, based in Singapore. He also served on the board of directors for Caltex Australia Limited and GS Caltex in South Korea.”
Wirth is the third consecutive non-upstream CEO for Chevron, as John Watson was an agricultural economist and previously Chevron’s CFO, and his predecessor was a chemical engineer. According to Bloomberg, Wirth’s crowning achievement in his refining position was selling off poorly-performing assets that held down Chevron’s profits.
Source: CVX Investor Presentation
Source: CVX Investor Presentation
