Lee Raymond, the tough-talking chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. who built the Texas oil producer into the world's most valuable company, yesterday said he would retire at the end of the year.
Andrew Logan, oil program manager at CERES
Exxon President Rex Tillerson, Raymond's longtime heir apparent and 30 year company veteran, is expected to be elected by Exxon's board as its next leader, the company said.
The announcement ends years of speculation over when the 66 year-old Raymond - feared and admired within corporate America but loathed by environmentalists - would hand over the reins.
Raymond himself has always been tight-lipped on the issue, publicly dressing down anyone who dared ask when he might leave.
"You either retire or die and I'd just as soon not die," Raymond said when asked about his future plans at the Reuters Energy Summit in June, his most recent public interview.
Analysts say Raymond's departure after 12 years at the helm will have little noticeable impact on Exxon's operations.
Under Raymond, Exxon stubbornly stuck to a long-term strategy that emphasized disciplined investment and ignored oil price swings - an approach Tillerson is not expected to stray from.
Raymond was known for steering Exxon through bouts of frenzied oil prices and subsequent collapses in his 42-year tenure, turning the Irving, Texas, company into one of the world's most consistently profitable companies.
He also presided over one of the few successful mega-mergers in corporate history - and the largest in the energy sector - by buying Mobil Corp. for $82 billion in 1999 to create the world's largest publicly traded oil company.
Hailed within corporate America, Raymond found little love from environmental activists. They portrayed him as a villainous chieftain in charge of a company that profited from high gas prices and endangered the environment with its stance on global warming and the Valdez oil spill off Alaska.
"You couldn't imagine anyone worse on the issue of climate change than Lee Raymond, so there's really nowhere to go but up with his successor," said Andrew Logan, oil program manager at CERES, a coalition of large investors and environmentalists.