Former Exxon CEO Defends $150M Pay Package

money.cnn.com ^ | April 19, 2006 | staff

[kellynla]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Never one to back away from confrontation while head of ExxonMobil Corp. for more than 13 years, Lee Raymond showed few signs of mellowing in retirement in his first public appearance following the controversy that erupted with the disclosure of his multimillion-dollar retirement package.

In a 90-minute talk at Columbia University on Tuesday evening, Raymond was unrepentant for any past decisions he had made and he blasted politicians, the U.S. car industry, Wall Street, environmentalists and other critics of the oil industry for what he said was their failure to understand the nature of the energy business, conceding only that he had been unsuccessful in getting his point of view across.

[kellynla]

"Back in 1998, when prices went down to $10 (per barrel), I don't recall anyone in Washington calling me up and saying 'what can we do to help.' But I didn't want them to be calling up. That's our job. We are in that business. It's our job to manage the risk. I am not interested in hearing from (politicians) when prices are at $10 and I am not interested in hearing from them when prices are at $40 or $50," he said.

[mewzilla]

I wonder how many pols up on the Hill own Big Oil stock...?

[rellimpank]

--amen--I have made essentially the same remark on the line of "did you thank the oil companies when you were paying $1.00/gal a few short years ago/"--

--usually it's a sure conversation stopper--

[pabianice]

In 1992, while Digital Equipment was laying-off thousands of long-time employees, Robert Palmer, the guy who had mounted the palace coup that ousted company founder Ken Olsen, gave a company-wide CCTV address. As we all watched, stunned, Palmer talked about how he had just given himself a 100% salary raise, pausing to say, "I feel good about it!" As he was speaking, I watched several dozen glazed-eyed, just laid-off employees being frog-marched by Corporate Security, out the door, their entire histories with DEC contained in the cardboard boxes they were clutching. Six years later Palmer finished killing DEC and rode-out of town in a bullet proof limo with a $52 million pay-off.

No one supports capitalism more than I, but this sort of wretchedness needs to be curbed.

[Realism]

failure to understand the nature of the energy business

Well the government understands, and the greater the contributions the more understanding they will be.

[mewzilla]

No one supports capitalism more than I, but this sort of wretchedness needs to be curbed.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing about federal, state, and local governments and all they money they're making off gas taxes.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

"Back in 1998, when prices went down to $10 (per barrel),..."

I don't remember that, at all. $10/ bbl? Is that true, k? Good gosh, I sure don't remember that low price on oil...

(((sigh)))

[steve-b]

Back in 1998, when prices went down to $10 (per barrel)

See what a good job Clinton did! [ /SARCASM ]

[linda_22003]

I don't remember the price per barrel, but I do remember Christmastime that year, paying 76 cents a gallon in eastern North Carolina. It really did go down a lot for awhile there (so did my stock....).

[EQAndyBuzz]

"No one supports capitalism more than I, but this sort of wretchedness needs to be curbed."

I agree. We should start with the NY Times.

[kellynla]

Here's a good chart of historical crude oil prices since 1946 both average per year and adjusted inflationary prices per year.
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/Historical_Oil_Prices_Table.asp

[psjones]

Gas was also down to a dollar a gallon the winter after
9-11.

[brownsfan]

"No one supports capitalism more than I, but this sort of wretchedness needs to be curbed."

You'll find very few here that truely agree with that sentiment.

[traviskicks]

"Back in 1998, when prices went down to $10 (per barrel), I don't recall anyone in Washington calling me up and saying 'what can we do to help.' But I didn't want them to be calling up. That's our job. We are in that business. It's our job to manage the risk. I am not interested in hearing from (politicians) when prices are at $10 and I am not interested in hearing from them when prices are at $40 or $50," he said.

I wish I had the transcript of this speech. I'd like to see oil companies hold hearings and haul some of these Senators in front of them. We deserve explanations.





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[D-Chivas]

I can't wait for Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to start complaining about this, especially since his wife used to be an executive at Conoco.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

I wonder how many pols up on the Hill own Big Oil stock...?

I wonder how many FReepers own big oil stock?

Put me down for Exxon, inherited from my 8th grade educated, Democrat grandmother who bought a share or two every time she could.... anyone can buy the stuff.

[canuck_conservative]

As outrageous as the payout is, it is a public company's right to pay their employees as they see fit. If the shareholders don't like it, they can vote to change the board of directors. And Exxon is swimming in money right now, although thanks is probably due more to the artificial boost from Bush's Iran-attack rhetoric.


But reading the article, he does sound like a solid, sensible manager. When was the last time we heard a CEO defending a long-term focus over short? That's a refreshing change.

[Prokopton]

"Back in 1998, when prices went down to $10 (per barrel), I don't recall anyone in Washington calling me up and saying 'what can we do to help"

In 1998 ExxonMobil had net profits of $6.37 billion and Raymond was paid $17.32 million. I don't think the crybabies needed any help.

[Barney Gumble]

Yeah, but he has an overinflated opinion of his own self worth. Exxon made a lot of money because the price of oil has gone up. Simple as that. It wasn't some grand leadership on Raymond's part. So he takes all the credit & $400 million, while leaving employees with what? The probably got a lousy 3.5% raise.

[linda_22003]

Put me down for a few thousand shares of XOM.... I worked at Mobil for several years, more than a decade ago.