Michael K. Wirth (born October 15, 1960) is an American businessman who has been the chairman and CEO of

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened t ...

since 2018. Previously, he was the vice chairman of the company.

Early life

After graduating from high school, Wirth attended the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver, and the U ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1982. Wirth played football and basketball at school.

Career

Wirth joined Chevron as a design engineer in 1982. He worked in multiple sectors including engineering, construction, and operations.In 2001 he became president of marketing for Chevron's Asia, Africa and Middle East region. He has been on the board of directors for Caltex Australia and

GS Caltex GS Caltex Corporation () is a South Korean Energy and Chemical company jointly owned by Chevron and GS Group. The company was founded in partnership with Caltex in May 19, 1967 as the first private oil company in Korea. The company changed it ...

. In 2018, Wirth was widely speculated and eventually confirmed to succeed John S. Watson as CEO of Chevron. Wirth is a member of the board of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group in the oil industry.

Climate Change Inaction

Wirth's company, Chevron, is responsible for one of the highest total carbon sequestration of any private company worldwide. Despite these practices, Wirth's company has been involved in several

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called green sheen, is a form of advertising or marketing spin that deceptively uses green PR and green marketing to persuade the public that an organization's products, goals, or ...

tactics, and was found by a Federal Trade Commission to be misleading its customers on its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In response to CNBC host

Jim Cramer James Joseph Cramer (born February 10, 1955) is an American television personality, author, entertainer, and former hedge fund manager. He is the host of ''Mad Money'' on CNBC, and an anchor on ''Squawk on the Street''. After graduating from Ha ...

asking if Chevron had considered calls to invest in alternative energy, Wirth responded that Chevron would rather the money “go back to our shareholders and let them plant trees, go invest in a wind and solar developer and have the right to do that with a growing dividend that comes out of our company.”

Personal life

Wirth and his wife have four adult children. Wirth moved to

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

in 2024 as part of Chevron's corporate headquarters relocating to avoid high labor costs and other staffing issues in California. Wirth sleeps less than 7 hours per night, waking at 3.45am to do a 90 minute gym session.https://www.ft.com/content/1902a8ef-7078-47e2-8a62-b6f0050ed569

References

1960 births Living people Directors of Chevron Corporation Businesspeople from Colorado University of Colorado alumni American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies {{US-business-bio-1960s-stub