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Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson was under attack today as some members of the Rockefeller family tried to convince shareholders to split the chairman and CEO jobs. Tillerson won the battle, and at least for now, will continue to hold both positions for the oil giant.As Zac Bissonnette noted Tuesday, Neva Rockefeller Goodwin and Peter O'Neill, descendants of John D. Rockefeller were the powering force behind today's proposed action, which wound up failing as only 39.5% of the company's shareholders voted to support the new changes. There were 4.4 billion votes cast in this years vote.
Last year, a similar proposal was put before a shareholder vote, with nearly an identical result of only a 40% approval for such a change.
It shouldn't really come as too much of a surprise that shareholders in the company are not too enthusiastic about stripping Tillerson of some of his powers. Regardless of what you think about Exxon and its business, it is hard to argue against Tillerson in light of the fact that the company, over the past two years, was able to set back to back records of annual profits, as well as last year buy back $28 billion of the company's stock.
One positive impact of the shareholder proposal was the softening of Tillerson's tone over environmental issues. During the meeting, he stated that Exxon was focused on "safely and reliably meeting the growing energy demand while working to reduce our impact on the environment."
So for now, Tillerson remains the man at the top, but you can be sure that he will have to start to focus more on alternative energy or he will find himself in the hot seat again before it is all said and done.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-06-2008 @ 10:09AM
Citizen said...
If the rockefellers wanted to make an impact and show a committment -they should sell their holdings and invest in alternative energy, mass transportation projects, self reliant programs that are uniquely american.
Giving back to the populace in this fashion would make a clear statement of there committment to change. i.e. " That would be putting there money where there mouth is. "