One of my energy industry feeds on Twitter was covering the filing by Engine No 1 (an investment firm) for a proxy campaign against ExxonMobil. This is a filing that proposes a slate of four new directors for ExxonMobil (this is from the letter on their website here:
We have therefore identified four highly qualified, independent individuals who have agreed to be nominated, if necessary, for election to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”). We have reviewed the qualifications of these individuals with the second largest pension fund in the U.S., the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (“CalSTRS”), which owns over $300 million in value of the Company’s stock. CalSTRS has informed us that, based upon the qualifications of such individuals, it intends to support them if nominated for election to the Board, and we believe that other long-term oriented investors will share this view.
- Gregory J. Goff. Mr. Goff has a long track record of success in the energy industry. Mr. Goff served as the CEO of Andeavor, a leading petroleum refining and marketing company formerly known as Tesoro, for eight years ending in 2018. During his tenure, Andeavor generated total returns of 1,224%, versus 55% for the U.S. energy sector. He was named one of the “Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review in 2018. Prior to Andeavor, he spent almost 30 years with ConocoPhillips in various leadership positions in Exploration and Production, Downstream, and Commercial operations.
- Kaisa Hietala. Ms. Hietala is an experienced leader in strategic transformation in the energy sector who began her career in upstream oil and gas exploration and crude oil trading. She served as the EVP of Renewable Products at Neste, a petroleum refining and marketing company, for five years ending in 2019. During her tenure, the Renewable Products segment’s revenues grew by 1.6x and operating profits grew by 4x. She played a central role in the strategic transformation of Neste into the world’s largest and most profitable producer of renewable diesel and jet fuel, which was named by Harvard Business Review as one of the “Top 20 Business Transformations of the Last Decade” in 2019.
- Alexander Karsner. Mr. Karsner is a leading corporate innovation strategist and accomplished energy entrepreneur and policymaker with more than three decades of global conventional and renewable energy experience. He is Senior Strategist at X (formerly Google X), the innovation lab of Alphabet Inc. He began his career developing and financing large scale energy infrastructure. As a private equity investor, venture partner, and advisor, his portfolios have included some of the most successful cleantech startups of the past decade. He previously served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy, responsible for multi-billion dollar federal R&D programs. He is a Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford University’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
- Anders Runevad. Mr. Runevad is a successful business leader with global energy experience. Mr. Runevad served as the CEO of Vestas Wind Systems, a wind turbine manufacturing, installation, and servicing company with more installed wind power worldwide than any other manufacturer, for six years ending in 2019, and is credited with turning around the company. During his tenure, Vestas stock returned a total of 480%, significantly outperforming the global energy and industrials sectors. He was included in Fortune’s “Businessperson of the Year” list in 2016.
Interesting — not saying this group is the “greenest” but it an interesting move. It should be noted the basis for Engine No 1’s actions against ExxonMobil is its lack of return on investment — it is not based on a “green” agenda.