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ExxonMobil elects new senior VP and CFO as Swiger plans to retire after 43 years

Andrew Swiger has decided to retire as senior vice president of ExxonMobil while Kathryn Mikells has been elected as senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of the company.

ExxonMobil building in Houston; Source: ExxonMobil
Kathryn Mikells - ExxonMobil
Kathryn Mikells; Source: ExxonMobil

Andrew Swiger, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation, has announced his intention to retire effective 1 September 2021, after more than 43 years of service. The board of directors has elected Kathryn Mikells, a former executive with Diageo, United Airlines and Xerox, as senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective 9 August, ExxonMobil revealed on Monday.

“I’d like to thank Andy, both personally and on behalf of the board of directors, for his many years of dedicated service, and wish him all the best in his retirement”, said Darren Woods, chairman and chief executive officer.

“We welcome Kathy to ExxonMobil and look forward to the perspective and experience she brings as we work together to deliver on our strategies and increase shareholder value”.

Swiger joined Mobil in 1978 as an operations engineer in Morgan City, Louisiana, after receiving a petroleum engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines. He held a series of upstream and corporate assignments before moving to downstream in 1996 as general manager of the Jurong refinery and petrochemical plant in Singapore. In 1999, he became president and general manager of Mobil Oil Canada, and was later appointed corporate production advisor at ExxonMobil’s headquarters in Irving, Texas.

In 2001, Swiger moved to London as production vice president for Africa, and in 2003 was appointed production vice president for the Europe/Caspian/Russia region. He was named executive vice president of ExxonMobil Production Company in 2004 and became president of ExxonMobil Gas & Power Marketing in 2006. Swiger was elected senior vice president and a member of the management committee in 2009 and became a principal financial officer in 2013.

Mikells joins ExxonMobil from Diageo plc, where she has held the position of chief financial officer since 2015 and was a member of the board of directors. In this role, she was accountable for strategy, investor relations, supply chain, procurement and finance.

Previously she was a chief financial officer at Xerox, ADT, Nalco and United Airlines. During her time at United Airlines, she was also vice president of investor relations and treasurer. Mikells holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Recently, after initially losing two board nominees to Engine No. 1, ExxonMobil said the activist firm would have three board seats after announcing all twelve board nominees.

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The project plans to capture and store approximately 5-6 million tons of CO2 per year by 2030 from gas terminals at the St Fergus complex at Peterhead, Scotland, which includes ExxonMobil’s joint venture gas terminal.