I think everyone can agree Watson was an absolute disaster as a CEO, but the early years of his reign of terror were covered up by high oil prices. Imagine how bad the downturn would have been if Kirkland was CEO. Holy moly, the company would be bust by now so it can always be worse.
That being said, I would like to see how others rank the CEOs from say 1990 to present. If you want to go back farther than that, feel free.
What’s even worst is the $100 billion that chevron transferred overseas they are only receiving a 4 percent ROE. They could have purchased both Apache and Occidental Chemical at bargain prices during the downturn plus more with this money or just kept it in the US banks making a better interest rate in lieu of laying off all these 🇺🇸 American workers
When Chevron became a global company was the day that Americans became expendable. Management has supported and continues to support what was once work done by American employees now being outsourced to overseas countries. Yes, management will say that the folks in Manila are Chevron employees, but, in order for them to have jobs American workers are systematically displaced. Downstream, Midstream. MidCon, AMBU consistently embrace laying off stateside employees. I am a current employee who continues to find it disheartening to know that Americans do not matter. When will the Company embrace the legacy of Ken Derr and others who worked to make Chevron respected in the oil and gas industry with American workers?
This is a great reply string. I wanted to add one more comment and it is about how Chevron has hurt the American people by transferring $100 Billion US worth of wealth from the American people that was generated by assets built by my fathers generation to Australia, Asia and and other global contractors. This represented 65% of the wealth of Chevron. These global engineers, module yards, and site indirect supervisors are now trained in the latest LNG construction methodologies from these billions of dollars and competing directly with the US. Mechanical Contractors conducting turnarounds along the Gulf Coast are now bringing in Australian indirect supervision to run these outages and turnarounds on H1 Visas displacing workers in Louisiana, Port Author, Corpus Christi. This has hurt generations of Americans. In addition, the run on the bank Chevron had to support this cash flow resulted in thousands of Americans loosing their jobs. What is wrong with this picture. This is pure greed and inequality where a few got rich at the expense of decades of American workers
@wfuo, Chevron indeed has institutionalized a quota based system. I agree with you that it was inherited from Texaco. I didn’t realize how bad it has become. It became very obvious to me a few years before retiring in 2014, but I understand it has become much worse. The company will pay dearly for this mistake it is making in political correctness and social engineering. I’m so glad I’m out of this company and living the dream that I worked so long and hard to earn.
Interesting posts! As a retiree, I agree with the majority here. The current situation is going downhill fast in my view. The quota problem is now being leveraged by Wirth to make Chevron "visibly equal" (yeah, we get the news). So instead of having the most qualified in the positions, they are based on the most qualified from specific groups. This quota problem was inherited from Texaco, and Chevron was too stupid to go to the Justice Department 15 years ago and have them set aside. Now you have the dumbing down of the organization. No doubt in my mind that Wirth voted for Hillary.
That’s right oiog. As a retiree of Chevron after having served the company for 28 years, I hope it’s not M Wirth’s position to finish off any remaining retiree benefits the company is providing.
-51pc, No it was O'Reilly who started separating the retirees from the employees in the mid 2000's. O'Reilly instituted the 4% cap on company health plan contributions while the employee contributions remained market driven (higher). Up until then employees and retirees were on the same plan. Also, he changed the ESOP matching from a percentage of company profits to fixed ratio. I really like the times I received 8 dollars for every dollar I put into the ESOP. But that stopped when O'Reilly fixed it at a 4 to 1 ratio.
But Yes, under Watson all of the other rule changes took place to minimize the company exposure to and expenses of retirees to the company.
Keller: without the Gulf takeover Chevron would long ago have been subsumed into BP/Exxon/Shell and disappeared without a trace like Amoco, Arco and Mobil; all of which were of a comparable size to us in the 80's.
@4rri, You must be mistaking O’Reilly with Watson, the previous clown azz CEO we had. It was him that screwed the retirees over with changes in the Retiree Medical Plan. Mr. O’Reilly is almost a fleeting thought in my mind, except for when I go through my watch cabinet box and spot the cheap Scagen watch he handed us one year in lieu of a bonus check. I’m still waiting for fresh batteries though.
I agree with -ocb, Ken Derr was the best CEO while I was with Chevron because of the Tengiz addition. Then closely following was George Keller with the acquisition of Gulf and the West Africa assets. It was great when the company was run by someone who actually came up through the business of finding and producing oil and not accounting.
O'Reilly was the WORST CEO, especially for the employees, with the changes in the ESOP matching and removing retirees from the employee group health plans. Now it really means nothing to put in a career with Chevron and retire. Thanks to O'Reilly, when you retire from Chevron you are just thrown out onto the street.
Mike Wirth seems to be bring some common sense back to the CEO's office. So far I like his back to basics, profit centered policies and his emphasis on maintaining and growing the dividend for all of us retirees.
Bijur was the best because he actually resisted the merger with all those clones at Chevron. He eventually was forced to give in but he did so under duress and finally cracked and slapped O'Reilly on his red face. He was sacked for it but I think he knew the writing was on the wall. Besides, as CEO he left with all his benefits instead of hanging around like that toadie Tilton.
Yeah -2flm? As opposed to what - your situation? LMAO.
Where 'butt hurt limp noodle (dead wood)? I miss him parroting on about how awesome he is at his supposed job, how much money he makes and how great his life is. I really miss is insecurity, it brought such an ironic slice of clownish humor to the board. Sigh
Ken Derr and Dave O'Reilly were great CEOs for the company because they knew the business and they actually grew the business. Mike Wirth is master of maintaining and cutting costs, not growing the business. Watson was too much of a numbers man and not knowledgeable about the oil business.
Keller wasn’t too bad, he reluctantly did the Gulf merger which finally gave us a few overseas assets.
It sure was a more stable time when Derr was leading the company. No gender identity BS, no LGBT azz kissing and carpet licking, no demographic quotas, no lawyers running the business. Even HR had friendly reps in every office building, most on the same floors with operations. During the Derr years, company Christmas parties were the best. I still have fond memories of them. The young whipper snappers will never realize what they missed. I think once we bought Texaco when O’Reilly was around, everything started changing quickly for the worse.
I agree. I appreciated Ken Derr’s management of the company. Maybe because he pre-dated the Texaco and Unocal acquisitions. It was a more stable time back then when he was around. But I won’t forget the jeweled encrusted gold-plated toilet with a secret Masonic inscription around the rim and the heavy lavatory sink he had commissioned out of the brass propeller off one of Chevron’s largest oil tankers. He was a little eccentric in some regards, but also a bold leader. The toilet was moved from the old San Francisco HQ to San Ramon and still exists in the current CEO’s private shrine bathroom, but the big brass lavatory has to stay in SF. It was too large and heavy to remove without busting out an exterior wall, which was the way it was brought in the first place. You gotta laugh. These CEOs of the past were true captains of industry and they did things very few will ever do today.
Ken Derr was number one.