ExxonMobil activist battle turns climate angst into referendum on CEO
An unprecedented fight over who should sit on the board of ExxonMobil is turning into a referendum on chief executive Darren Woods as a decades-long struggle by climate campaigners comes to a head. By Bloomberg 24/05/2021, 3:17 am
Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., speaks during the World Gas Conference in Washington, D.C., U.S, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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Exxonâs activist investors spin climate dispute into a referendum on CEO Darren Woods By Kevin Crowley on 5/24/2021
Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods
HOUSTON (Bloomberg) An unprecedented fight over who should sit on the board of Exxon Mobil Corp. is turning into a referendum on Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods as a decades-long struggle by climate campaigners comes to a head.
Activist investor Engine No. 1 LLC wants to replace one-third of Exxonâs board in an effort to force the Western worldâs largest oil explorer to embrace a transition away from fossil fuels and end a decade of what it calls âvalue destruction.â Shareholders are set to gather â virtually â for their annual meeting on May 26.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild, founder of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, believes change will come when hedge fund billionaires and Pope Francis work together.
Exxon’s activist investor gains an unusual ally in its push for change
The Irving-based oil giant’s CEO tells CNBC that it offered to work with Engine No. 1.
The sign on April 28 at an Exxon service station in Philadelphia.(Matt Rourke)
11:34 AM on May 14, 2021 CDT
An investor pushing for changes at Exxon Mobil Corp. got a boost from a prominent advisory firm, which urged shareholders to support some of the activist’s board nominees.
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. weighed in Friday on the months-long fight between Engine No. 1 and the oil and gas giant. It recommended investors vote May 26 for three of the four nominees from Engine No. 1′s slate: Gregory Goff, Kaisa Hietala, and Alexander Karsner.
Institutional Shareholder Services, the influential proxy adviser, is backing three dissident candidates to the board of ExxonMobil in the first proxy contest to push a major oil company to make a significant transition to clean energy.
The support of ISS is a coup for the new impact investment firm, Engine No. 1, which put up the slate that ISS endorsed. After Engine No. 1 first announced its proxy campaign in December, Exxon took steps to refresh its board, adding new board members, including hedge fund manager Jeff Ubben, who last year launched his own impact hedge fund.
But ISS, in a measured but ultimately scathing critique of the fossil fuel giant, concluded that the addition of the new directors wasn’t enough to meet the challenge. Despite Exxon’s recent recognition of climate change risk, “there are lingering questions about the extent of its commitment in the area,” the proxy advisor wrote in its report endorsing the three candidates, which