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Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon)
Standard Oil of New York (Mobil)
The legendary John D. Rockefeller was the pioneering builder of the Standard Oil monopoly that dominated the nascent American oil industry in its explosive early growth during the late 19th century.
Beginning with a small refinery in Ohio in 1870, Rockefeller relentlessly consolidated control over oil refining, pipelines, and distribution under Standard Oil's umbrella to become the wealthiest magnate and powerful corporation of the Gilded Age.
Commanding near total control of oil flows in the United States by the start of the 20th century.
His great company would eventually be forced to break apart, but would rise again in the image of ExxonMobil.
When Standard Oil was broken up in 1911, John D. Archbold, a long-time Standard Oil executive, was appointed as the first CEO of the newly formed Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon).
Serving from 1911-1916 and overseeing the early years of the company following dissolution before passing leadership on to Alfred C. Bedford.
Archbold steered Standard Oil of New Jersey with a steady hand during a turbulent transitional period as it adjusted operations in the wake of antitrust actions against its predecessor.
Alfred C. Bedford took the reins at Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1916 following the five-year leadership of John D. Archbold, serving briefly as CEO for just a year before his sudden death in 1917.
Though his time as chief executive was short, Bedford guided the company in an orderly fashion, ensuring stability and continued success in the period between Standard Oil's dissolution and the United States' entry into World War I.
Ascending as CEO of Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1917 upon the unexpected death of Alfred Bedford, Walter C. Teagle would steward the company for two decades through tremendous growth and global expansion following consolidation of the U.S. oil industry.
This happened after Rockefeller's antitrust breakup and the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties.
Teagle's strategic leadership transformed the newly independent Standard Oil into an integrated international energy powerhouse and market leader for the next generation.
When Walter Teagle retired in 1937 after a long and transformational leadership of Standard Oil of New Jersey, William S. Farish II took over stewardship of the company at the tail end of the Great Depression.
Confronting the constraints on the oil industry imposed by the War Production Board and fuel rationing in support of World War II prior to his death in 1942.
As CEO for half a decade, Farish capably managed operations and production for Standard Oil amidst economic uncertainty and wartime disruptions before handing the reins to Ralph Gallagher upon the U.S.'s full entry into the widening global conflict.
Stepping into the CEO role at Standard Oil of New Jersey after the sudden death of William Farish in 1942, Ralph W. Gallagher provided just a year of leadership for the company at a time of upheaval in the oil industry.
Mainly due to massive wartime demands before passing the reins in 1943 to Eugene Holman.
Gallagher kept Standard Oil functioning efficiently as part of the all-hands-on-deck full economic mobilization during America's first year officially engaged in combating the Axis powers in World War II.
Taking over leadership of Standard Oil of New Jersey after Ralph Gallagher's short stint during wartime disruption in 1944, Eugene Holman guided the company for less than a year.
As the allied momentum of D-Day and massive ongoing fuel needs for the invasion of Europe and Pacific theater placed immense pressure on oil supplies before handing over the reins later that year to Monroe Rathbone.
Holman steered Standard Oil operations deftly for a matter of months through the make-or-break phase of WWII for the Allies storming Fortress Europe which demanded strategic leadership in the oil patch to deliver vital energy flows.
Taking the helm of Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1944 at the height of World War II, Monroe J. Rathbone II provided steady leadership for the next critical decade through the end of the massive wartime disruption.
Overseeing reliable oil delivery for the final allied offensive and the start of post-war recovery, economic growth and industry consolidation in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Guiding Standard Oil for nearly a ten years total, Rathbone capably managed the company's evolution from serving wartime needs to adjusting operations for peacetime expansion at home and abroad in the Pax Americana era.
Inheriting leadership of Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1954 near the peak of post-war US economic might and global influence.
Michael L. Haider adeptly presided over the company for the next decade marked by overseas oil exploration and expanding worldwide operations fueled by affordable petroleum serving consumer prosperity and suburban growth.
Haider strategically guided Standard Oil through a period of rising international market dominance.
Benefiting from surging American economic and geopolitical power projection underpinned by the nation's robust oil reserves and production capacity during the high point of the Pax Americana era.
Taking the reins from Michael Haider in 1963, J. Kenneth Jamieson's brief two year leadership of Standard Oil of New Jersey coincided with the peak of American prosperity in mid-decade.
Though it was also marked by growing economic competition from a resurgent Europe and Japan recovering their pre-war industrial strength to challenge US global economic dominance in a precursor of troubles ahead.
Jamieson provided steady guidance of Standard Oil before passing leadership to Milo Brisco in 1965 just as the long post-war boom showed signs of slowing.
Helming Standard Oil of New Jersey from 1965 following J. Kenneth Jamieson's short stint during late Pax Americana optimism that soon encountered growing turmoil.
Milo M. Brisco led the company for the latter 60s as domestic production peaked while demand pressure from resurgent industrial rivals meant declining US energy dominance and tightening margins ahead of the OPEC oil shocks.
Though his tenure saw profits begin lagging, Brisco started reorienting priorities for the impending economic crisis and transitional period on the horizon before passing leadership to Clifton Garvin in 1969 at a turning point for the industry.
Entering the top leadership post at Standard Oil of New Jersey amidst fraying US global energy hegemony in 1969, Clifton C. Garvin, Jr. steered the company through the tumultuous early 1970s.
Marked by rising competition, declining domestic oil surplus and the seismic shocks of embargo and price spikes flowing fromPeak Oil panic and the new petropolitics unleashed by OPEC's hunger for leverage.
Though buffeted by the tempest during his six year tenure, Garvin started the difficult process of coming to terms with limitations of the earlier expansionist era for American oil interests by retrenching and consolidating operations for the difficult transition period that lasted through the decade.
Taking the helm as the United States emerged from the OPEC crisis entering its troubled tenure of stagflation and malaise in 1975, Howard C. Kauffmann stewarded Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Soon to be renamed Exxon, for the next decade through the difficult period of declining American economic strength and transitional challenges of adapting the oil industry to harsh new global energy realities with much effort spent divesting assets and uncertain exploration to again position Exxon for future growth.
Kauffmann's lengthy leadership—the longest since Walter Teagle's transformative tenure—was devoted to the soul searching strategic reset.
And disciplined revival mission necessary to regain profitability and flexibility for the company after the complacency of US energy dominance evaporated in the searing lessons following the confidence-shaking Oil Shocks of the notorious 1970s.
Assuming leadership of Exxon in 1985 as the US emerged from the difficult 1970-80s period of decline and rebuilding an economy attempting to move past heavy industry, Lawrence G. Rawl ably led the oil giant for the next 8 years through a transitional era of consolidation.
Shedding inefficient assets, and prudent expansion focused again overseas in promising regions while adapting the company culture to renewed competitiveness.
Rawl’s tenure guiding a leaner, nimbler Exxon back to reliable profitability after the inflation-weakened economy was wracked by oil shocks laid the groundwork to regain status as an industry leader ready to seize opportunities in a globalizing world.
Assuming control of Exxon in 1993 at the dawn of a unipolar world defined by ascendant free market economics and unrivaled American power, Lee R. Raymond leveraged that global moment over the next 12 years to expand ExxonMobil.
Making the world's largest energy company and most profitable corporation on earth by revenue driven through relentless expansion, consolidation, and efficiency improvements befitting the confidence and shareholder return priorities of the market triumphalist 90s.
Raymond's transformative and lengthy leadership tenure, evoking the empire building heights of Walter Teagle's interwar Growth years, firmly consolidated ExxonMobil as a globally integrated corporate force harnessing the promise of boundless progress.
Guided by technocratic management precision and scale in the optimism of hyper powered post-Cold War capitalism.
As the leader of Standard Oil Company of New York during the 1911 breakup of Rockefeller’s monopoly into regional corporations, Henry C. Folger Jr. ably guided the newly independent entity for more than a decade.
Expanding overseas and domestic operations to become a fully integrated oil company competing in global markets.
Folger’s long stewardship provided steady vision and growth for the New York arm of the former Standard Oil Trust, even through the economic disruptions of World War I, to ensure its prosperity in the “Roaring 20s” as a prominent pillar of rising American oil supremacy on the world stage.
Herbert L. Pratt took leadership of Standard Oil of New York in 1923 at the start of a highly optimistic and prosperous period where he significantly grew assets and market share to become one of the largest oil companies for the next 5 years until his retirement in 1928.
Benefiting from economic boom times in the "roaring twenties", Pratt leveraged soaring domestic demand and low foreign competition during the paused global integration following World War I.
To rapidly expand Standard Oil of New York's scale and revenues in the US and Canada.
Charles F. Meyer assumed leadership of Standard Oil of New York in 1928 at the tail end of the fabulously prosperous Jazz Age only to be confronted by the massive economic contraction of the Great Depression soon after.
Leading the company for 7 lean years focused on austerity and survival until 1935.
Though presiding during the reversal of fortunes from the previous decade's bounding growth.
Meyer cautiously steered Standard Oil of New York through punishing constriction of demand in the early 1930s with future prospects rescued by the economic stabilization of the New Deal's restoration projects resuscitating US oil consumption by the middle of the decade.
Taking over Standard Oil of New York in 1935 while the US economy was still plagued by Depression-era privation, John A. Brown ably led the company for the next critical decade encompassing recovery, wartime upheaval, and start of a post-war boom.
That facilitated geographic expansion and vertical reintegration.
Brown steered Standard Oil operations through a period of great transformation.
Seeing the company emerge from the austerity of the 1930s to serve the war effort with fuel supplies for the military before beginning promising global diversification as the American economy might reach new heights in the late 1940s.
Assuming leadership of Standard Oil of New York in 1944 at the height of America's engagement combatting fascist powers in World War II, B. Brewster Jennings capably managed the company for the next decade.
Encompassing the allied victory, a resurgence of economic optimism fueling surging oil demand in the prosperous 1950s.
Jennings navigated Standard Oil through the pivotal transition from serving wartime needs to capturing growing market share in an ascendant post-war US economy marked by consumerist suburban expansion and the heyday of the American automobile.
Taking the helm at Standard Oil of New York in 1955 amidst post-war US economic might at its apex before competition from recovering foreign rivals emerged, Albert L. Nickerson, Jr. led the company for the next 6 years of sustained growth.
Benefiting from robust domestic petroleum consumption of the world's largest consumer market during the baby boom's hunger for gasoline to fill suburban expansion.
Nickerson emulated the ambitious global vision of the early pioneering Rockefeller years by expanding international exploration and production to secure oil reserves across the Middle East and North Africa.
Even as signs appearing by 1960 foretold an approaching end to unfettered dominance that American oil interests enjoyed since World War I.
Herbert Willetts took the reins at Standard Oil of New York just after the apex of post-war American hegemony in 1961 to encounter early challenges of inflation, a slowing economy, and the rise of potent OPEC momentum.
By 1964 forecasting future turbulence for the industry.
Though his leadership stint was brief, Willetts adeptly maintained profits via diversification and cost efficiencies for one of Rockefeller’s original oil offshoots that was soon to reemerge as Mobil Oil to confront the market transformations looming ahead.
Guiding the newly branded Mobil Oil from 1964 during prosperity's last hurrah before the economic crisis and oil shocks of the 1970s, Rawleigh Warner, Jr. skillfully grew profits and assets for the former Standard Oil of New York arm.
Even as US energy dominance showed fatigue allowing openings for OPEC and rival multinationals to expand market share.
Though the sunset on American oil supremacy accelerated later under his watch, Warner made Mobil competitive with integrated global operations before passing leadership in 1969 to William Tavoulareas.
Just as the industry transitioned into a decade troubled by peaking domestic production and rising state control abroad.
Assuming control of Mobil Oil in 1969 at the onset of declining domestic production, challenging margins from foreign competitors, and OPEC asserting pricing power that upended the decades-long stability benefiting American oil interests.
William P. Tavoulareas stewarded the company through the tumultuous 1970s-early 1980s of oil shocks and global unrest culminating in the oil glut that challenged industry profitability.
Tavoulareas provided 15 years of leadership spanning the pivotal transition when the complacency of US energy dominance unraveled forcing Mobil's adaptation to the new era of higher volatility and capital intensity for oil companies navigating politically unstable producing regions and higher baseline energy costs.
Inheriting stewardship of Mobil Oil in 1984 still emerged in the long shadow of 1970’s oil shocks though taking advantage of subsequent drops in energy prices.
Allen E. Murray guided the company for the next 14 years of relative stability witnessing dynamic change as Soviet collapse and globalization accelerated competitive pressures within the industry.
Murray focused Mobil on increased productivity, strategic mergers, and exploiting new reserves abroad to consolidate strengths as the last remnants of America’s shattered oil supremacy dissolved fully by the 1990s into a complex multiplayer market driven by multinationals, OPEC, and state energy firms.
In 1998 near the apex of unrivaled American power and market triumphalism as headwinds gathered for oil companies from environmental activism and industry consolidation.
Lucio Noto briefly led Mobil for just a year but successfully brokered its historic merger with Standard Oil Company of New Jersey creating ExxonMobil before his retirement in 1999.
Though his time as chief executive was short prior to the landmark Exxon-Mobil merger deal, Noto achieved his crowning legacy in ushering two of the fabled Seven Sisters joining together from John D. Rockefeller’s dissolved Standard Oil monopoly.
Renewing their titan status as the world’s largest integrated oil conglomerate.
Ascending as the first CEO of the newly merged ExxonMobil in 1999 at the dawn of a Period of unrivaled American economic might and consolidation in the oil industry.
Lee R. Raymond leveraged the company’s vast scale over the next 6 years to achieve record profits that briefly made ExxonMobil the world’s largest and most valuable company by mid-decade.
Raymond pioneered the post-merger integration process and instilled a focused business culture oriented toward efficiency, technological innovation, and ruthless competitiveness befitting the confidence and shareholder capitalism priorities of the era to cement ExxonMobil’s preeminence entering the 21st century.
Inheriting leadership of the world's most profitable energy firm at the peak of oil prices in 2006, Rex Tillerson skillfully guided ExxonMobil to continued success for the next decade marked by the disruptive forces of hydraulic fracturing.
Upending market dynamics along with rising shareholder pressure and climate change risk before being tapped as Secretary of State in 2016.
Building on Lee Raymond’s robust foundation, Tillerson prioritized technological innovation, complex partnerships, and adept geopolitical negotiations to enable development of unconventional reserves.
Ushering the United States into a new era as a petroleum superpower amidst emerging turbulence.
Inheriting stewardship of ExxonMobil in 2017 from his predecessor Rex Tillerson who left to join the Trump administration as Secretary of State.
Darren Woods has deftly guided the company in recent years through a pivotal transition managing the radical market fluctuations following the pandemic demand crash and global energy shocks of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Leading ExxonMobil during an increasingly volatile period of competition and climate policy pressures.
Woods has focused operations and messaging around a long view toward positioning ExxonMobil's role providing reliable energy abundance for an energy transition.
Balancing economic development needs against decarbonization imperatives facing the oil industry in a century crucial for charting a more sustainable future.
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