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Activist investor Engine No. 1 was successful in adding one more
nominee to the board of oil major ExxonMobil.
The company on 2 June confirmed the election of
Alexander Karsner, senior strategist at X (formerly known as Google
X), a week after shareholders voted following ExxonMobil's annual
general meeting.
Karsner joins Kaisa Hietala, a former executive vice president
of renewable products at Neste, a Finnish refiner and marketer, and
Gregory Goff, former chief executive of Andeavor, a US refiner now
part of Marathon Petroleum, in serving on the board with nine
re-elected members including ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, according
to preliminary results announced by the company.
The election of three Engine No. 1 candidates to ExxonMobil's
board of directors is seen as a sharp rebuke to the company's
management and policies for creating value in a world transitioning
away from fossil fuels.
The announcement came the same day as new analysis of US
Environmental Protection Agency GHG emissions data showed
ExxonMobil is not only the US largest producer of fossil fuels, it
remains the largest emitter of CO2 and the second-largest emitter
of methane.
Commissioned by nonprofit Clean Air Task Force and Ceres, a
sustainable investor network, with support from Bank of America,
M.J. Bradley & Associates performed analysis of GHG data
submitted by 295 oil and natural gas producers in 2019.
Welcoming the new directors to the board, Woods said ExxonMobil
looks forward to building on the progress "we've made to grow
long-term shareholder value, and succeed in a lower-carbon
future."
The election of Hietala and Goff was announced shortly after
shareholders cast their vote on 26 May, but ExxonMobil said it
would announce the results of the votes on the remaining candidates
at a later date because the count was too close to call.
In December, Engine No. 1 nominated Karsner, Hietala, Goff, and
Anders Runevad, former chief executive of Vestas Wind Systems, a
turbine manufacturer, to the ExxonMobil board.
"We are grateful for shareholders' careful consideration of our
nominees and are excited that these three individuals will be
working with the full board to help better position ExxonMobil for
the long-term benefit of all shareholders," Engine No. 1 said in a
2 June statement.
Engine No. 1, which holds a $54 million stake in the company
with a $248 billion market capitalization, wants ExxonMobil to
slash its capital spending and focus on the energy transition,
saying its current strategy is no longer credible.
Some 20% of the company's stock is held by asset managers
BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, and Fidelity. BlackRock,
Vanguard, and State Street joined the Net Zero Asset Managers
Initiative, an international effort to limit investments to
projects and companies aiming for net-zero carbon footprints.
Posted 02 June 2021 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate and Energy Research Analyst
