Lee Roy Raymond (born August 13, 1938) is an American businessman and was the chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

from 1999 to 2005. He had previously been the CEO of

Exxon Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was form ...

since 1993. He joined the company in 1963 and served as president from 1987 and a director beginning in 1984. While at Exxon, Raymond was one of the most outspoken executives in the United States against regulation to curtail

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. While casting doubt on climate change in public, internal Exxon research pointed to the role of human activity in climate change and the dangers of climate change which was characterized in the PBS Frontline three-part documentary "The Power of Big Oil".

Early life and education

Lee Raymond was born in

Watertown, South Dakota Watertown is a city in and the county seat of Codington County, South Dakota, United States. Watertown is home to the Redlin Art Center, which houses many of the works of Terry Redlin, one of the nation's most popular wildlife artists. Watertow ...

, on August 13, 1938. He graduated from Watertown High School in 1956. Raymond received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 1960. Raymond went on to earn his PhD in chemical engineering from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the same university in 2001. Raymond met his wife, Charlene née Hocevar, while studying at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; she was pursuing and later earned a degree in journalism.

Career

Raymond began working for Exxon in 1963. Raymond became a director of Exxon in 1984 and in 1987 he became the president of the company. In 1993, he became CEO succeeding

Lawrence G. Rawl Lawrence Gabriel Rawl (May 4, 1928 – February 14, 2005) was an American businessman, the chairman and CEO of Exxon from 1985 to 1993. Early life Rawl was born in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, Lyndhurst, New Jersey in 1928. Toward the end of World War ...

and held this post until 2005. He negotiated the merger with Mobil that became effective on January 1, 2000, and gave birth to the new ExxonMobil company. In 2003, when approaching the age of 65, the mandatory retirement age for executives at ExxonMobil, the board of directors requested him to stay in his position two more years, in order to prepare his succession, after the post-merger reorganisation period. On August 14, 2005, Raymond announced that he would retire at the end of 2005 as ExxonMobil's chairman and CEO, two years later than the usual mandatory retirement age of 65 for the company executives. ExxonMobil president Rex W. Tillerson succeeded Raymond on 1 January 2006. On April 14, 2006, it was reported that Raymond's retirement package was worth about $400 million, the largest in history for a U.S. public company. However, the majority of that sum consisted of retirement-independent salary, bonuses, stock options, and

restricted stock Restricted stock, also known as restricted securities, is stock of a company that is not fully transferable (from the stock-issuing company to the person receiving the stock award) until certain conditions (restrictions) have been met. Upon satisfa ...

awards from his final year and prior years that, while high, are not unprecedented among major American CEOs. Retirement-specific payments in accordance with the standard pension plan provided to all ExxonMobil employees totaled around $100 million, calculated based on his over forty years of service and his salary upon retirement. Raymond was also chair of the National Petroleum Council (NPC), when it was asked to produce a report on the future of oil supply and demand. Raymond was one of the most outspoken executives in the United States against regulation to curtail

. In the 1990s, Raymond claimed that the scientific evidence for climate change was “inconclusive” and that “the case for global warming is far from air tight.” After retiring from Exxon, Raymond was hired in 2005 as lead independent director for JPMorgan Chase. In 2020, amid pressure to remove Raymond from the board due to his history on climate change, JPMorgan Chase removed Raymond as lead independent director of JPMorgan Chase’s board.

Legacy

Steve Coll Steve Coll (born October 8, 1958) is an American journalist, academic, and executive. He was dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as the Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism until 2022. A staff w ...

describes Raymond as "notoriously skeptical about climate change and disliked government interference at any level". In a new BBC Documentary, Big Oil v the World, Professor Martin Hoffert, a former Exxon climate consultant, called Lee Raymond's report, "Climate Change: Don't Ignore the facts," as "a load of baloney," and "I would have to say that on an ethical basis, it is actually evil." Lee Raymond was at the helm of Exxon while it remained one of the last large companies to omit gay employees in its anti-discrimination policy. He was also at the helm during the takeover of Mobil, when the new Exxon-Mobil corporation rescinded Mobil's pre-existing anti-discrimination policy. HR policy was eventually updated in 2015 to include a prohibition on discrimination against gay employees, but from 1999 to 2014 the board annually rejected a resolution brought by shareholders to compel the company to implement a non-discrimination policy. His son, John T. Raymond, is active in the oil and gas industry. John partnered with the Jim Flores and Paul Allen-backed Vulcan Capital in the buyout of Plains Resources. Lee Raymond received the

Woodrow Wilson Award Woodrow Wilson Awards are given out in multiple countries each year by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution to individuals in both the public sphere and business who have shown an outstanding commit ...

from the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

for Corporate Citizenship during a dinner held in his honor in Dallas, Texas, in early 2003.

Awards and honors

*1998 Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

*2003 Woodrow Wilson Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars *2006 Texas Business Hall of Fame *2006 Exxon Mobil Corporation Endows Scholarship Awards to Honor Lee R. Raymond *2018 Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award for the Advancement of International Energy Policy & Diplomacy

References

External links

Dissertaton

* Raymond, Lee Roy.
An Analytical Study of the Transient Behavior and Stability of Tubular Reactors and Catalyst Particles
'. University of Minnesota, 1963.

Articles

* Article
World Energy Magazine - The Future of Energy in Emerging Asia
* Article
World Energy Magazine - The United Kingdom Leads Europe’s Growing Import Demand
*

Other

SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission)
Enemy of the Planet
New York Times piece by

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American New Keynesian economics, New Keynesian economist who is the Distinguished Professor of Economics at the CUNY Graduate Center, Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He ...

, 17 April 2006
Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
Guardian article by Ian Sample, 2 February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond, Lee 1938 births Living people American chief executives American Enterprise Institute American chemical engineers ExxonMobil people University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Engineering alumni Directors of JPMorgan Chase Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Minnesota CEMS