Not even Rockefellers can force leadership changes at Exxon Mobil
By The Associated Press Thursday, May 29, 2008DALLAS (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson will retain both of those jobs at the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company after a highly public, Rockefeller-led push to separate the roles that failed again Wednesday.
Stripping Tillerson of the chairman’s job in favor of an independent director was the main focus of the company’s annual shareholder meeting at a downtown symphony hall.
In the end, the measure got support of only 39.5 percent of shareholders, slightly less than last year’s 40 percent, despite a hard push by descendants of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Exxon Mobil predecessor Standard Oil Corp.
A variety of institutional investors in the U.S. and abroad also lined up behind the proposal.
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