Dallas – Shareholders of Ex xon Mobil Corp., whose last chief executive took home $147 million when he retired, overwhelmingly rejected resolutions to rein in compensation at the oil company’s annual meeting Wednesday.
Chairman and chief executive Rex Tillerson said some shareholders sent a signal by withholding votes for board members who approved former CEO Lee Raymond’s widely publicized pay and pension packages.
“We all recognize that there has been a lot of controversy and comment around compensation,” said Tillerson, who took over in January after Raymond retired. “Probably most likely what we were seeing is some people voting their disapproval of how that was handled.”
Raymond was paid $49 million in cash and restricted stock last year, then got a $98 million lump-sum pension payment.
In comments after his first shareholder meeting as CEO of the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Tillerson said it’s up to Exxon Mobil directors to prevent him from getting a Raymond-like package in a few years. He hasn’t asked them to limit his compensation, but “they know how to reach me,” he said.
Tillerson also said the company was sensitive to motorists’ complaints about high gasoline prices but can’t do anything about the situation.
He said Ex xon Mobil would keep searching for oil but that it would take several years for supply and demand to even out.
Exxon Mobil earned $36.1 billion last year – the highest ever by any U.S. corporation – helping spur talk in Congress of a wind fall-profits tax on oil companies.
Tillerson said it would be a mistake to let frustration with oil prices affect energy policy.
