Exxon activist investor wins two board seats
May 26, 2021 1:19 PM ET
Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)
By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor205 Comments
Two of Engine No. 1's four nominees won election to Exxon Mobil's (XOM +0.4%) board at today's shareholders meeting, with the vote over a third Engine No. 1 candidate too close to call as of 1:15 p.m.
The two new board members are Greg Goff, former Andeavor/Tesoro CEO, and Kaisa Hietala, former head of renewable fuels at Finnish refiner Neste.
CEO Darren Woods reportedly has been re-elected, but it will be difficult for him to continue to run the company after the board vote, says Andrew Logan, senior director at Ceres, a non-profit focused on sustainability that supported Engine No. 1's campaign.
The vote - pulled off by a heretofore unknown hedge fund that owned a mere 0.02% stake - is a major rebuke to the company and the oil industry as a whole: "If Exxon can be brought low, no oil company will be able to resist the global shift toward a carbon-free future," writes Carleton English at Barron's.
if Exxon can be brought low, no oil company will be able to resist the global shift toward a carbon-free future
More to come...