I never heard what really happened there, but this group seems to be in the know so I figured I would ask.
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IMO Watson came in to do a layoff after O'Reilly departed because O'Reilly did not want to retire with the smell of a Layoff over him. I think layoffs coincide to some extent with the arrival of a new CEO where they clean house and thereby put their stamp on the Org. They put people they like in new positions demote or get rid of others. Mike Wirth did his layoff in 2020 right, and is now making his mark on the company. Unless something goes wrong the next big layoff will occurs after he retires. so that the next CEO can stamp his/her org on the regime. and so it repeats on and on.
Watson is enjoying his millions , his private Venezuelan island and his Cuban cigars.
He doesnt care/
Whether JW was forced out or he waltzed away voluntarily doesn’t matter to me. That he’s gone is all that counts.
JW was forced out at age 61.
John Watson hit Chevron’s proverbial banana peel. That is, he turned 65. Chevron has a policy for all its executive directors, including CEOs. You must retire after turning 65 years of age. Ge-z, where is that rule when it comes to the US Congress and the White House?
If JW was forced out, the only thing that was bruised was his ego. Chevron likes their former CEOs (and EVPs as well) to just "disappear" (no books, no interviews, no starting up their own companies, etc.). JW was compensated well enough to just "disappear" - have you heard anything from him since he left?
@1pdb, what I said was ABU LNG didn't live up to the hype it was given. Yes, it is making a lot of money now. Remember, though, that it was a $50 billion cost overrun, has had a lot of down time, and then there's the CO2 capture failing, which is costing us lots of money as well in offsets and penalties.
AMBU and CDB weren’t really shining stars for JW either
ABU not a cash cow? Might want to check the latest financial figures and the worst kept secret of their 18.3% one off bonus across the board.
Gorgon was catastrophically mis-designed and executed by the best in Chevron and peer partner companies. But the AFE price forecast was like $55/bbl and same for spot cargos. Reality has been double at times and more.
That was certainly the rumor at the time.
Yes, many of us at the time thought it was strange that JW was 'retiring'. Back then, we thought he had irritated Wall St. JW was a nice guy, but he was the Board's fall guy for all the massive project overruns and missteps, mainly anything to do with LNG. There are those who will say that Australian LNG is a cash cow, but it hasn't even remotely lived up to its hype 15 years ago (and of course, they won't mention the financial disaster Angola LNG has been). While JW was bleeding money, MW was doing his Putin-like thing (I like that analogy) of cutting and cutting and cutting to look good compared to JW. The trouble, as we have since found out, is that cutting is the only skill MW has - he has not innovated or grown the company in any fashion.
Watson was a finance guy, which was initially thought to be sufficient to run the company. But he was bullied by the EVP of upstream into a lot of bad investments. When financial losses came in 2016, it was more than the board could take so he was asked to step down prematurely from his planned 10 year run as CEO. MW, the Putin-esque master schemer and plotter, also convinced board insiders this was a good idea as it would give him a longer run as CEO (as he was getting too old to start his run). Now, we see him using the same tactics on the other end of his tenure to extend his power. PB, who had been anointed by JW as his successor (the California Finance Fraternity), is sick of it.
I think he was pushed out. He was still young when he left. To me he came off as just a caretaker and not a leader. He didn’t have any leadership instincts just sort of rode DO’s wake. He wasn’t terrible though- look at how stupid Shell’s CEO was, he practically destroyed the company’s US operations and ran off with his tail between his legs.
MW is a leader, he is respected in industry and on Wallstreet. The difference is clear.