Lee Raymond

Lee R. Raymond (born August 13, 1938) was the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of ExxonMobil from 1999 to 2005. He had previously been the CEO of Exxon since 1993. He joined the company in 1963 and has been president since 1987 and a director since 1984.

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In 1989, Raymond's tenure as President of Exxon saw the Exxon Valdez disaster which spilled an estimated 30 million gallons of crude oil off the Alaskan coast and killed thousands of wildlife animals and fish.

On August 4 2005, Raymond announced that he would retire at the end of 2005 as ExxonMobil's Chairman and CEO. 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 awards from his final year and prior years that, while high, are by no means 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.

Lee Raymond is the vice chair of American Enterprise Institute's board of trustees.

His son, John T. Raymond, is active in the oil and gas industry. Partnered with Jim Flores and Paul Allen backed Vulcan Capital in the buyout of Plains Resources.

Raymond was appointed to Chair a committee to lead America's Alternative Energy Future by President Bush in fall 2006.[1]

The report of 18 July 2007 by the National Petroleum Council, of which Lee is a member, argues, contrary to Lee’s former position on this matter, for an international framework to tackle emissions of carbon dioxide, suggesting that Lee has taken a greener stand on energy policy after his retirement from Exxon.[2]

Education

• Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1960.
• Raymond earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree from the same university in 2001.
• Met his wife while studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; she was pursuing, and later earned, a degree in journalism.

Criticism

The American Enterprise Institute, of which Lee Raymond is vice-chairman, offered $10,000 stipends to scientists for studies evaluating the IPCC 2006 report on climate change [3].

Exxon has already paid $3 billion for compensatory payments, cleanup, and the settlement of state and federal claims, but is currently appealing a $4 billion punitive damages court ordered payment to Alaskan fishermen. A shame pole was erected in 2007 against Exxon and Raymond [4].

Other

• Reference for Business profile, ReferenceForBusiness.com
• Article on retirement package, ABC News
• Exxon’s CEO didn’t really get a $398 million retirement package, Truth on the Market blog
• SEC-filed Proxy Statement detailing Raymond's retirement compensation, SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission)
• Enemy of the Planet New York Times piece by Paul Krugman, 17 April 2006
• Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study Guardian article by Ian Sample, 2 February 2007