Oil and natural gas company Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) announced Thursday that Chairman, President and CEO Clarence Cazalot, Jr. will retire at the end of the year. Cazalot will be succeeded by ExxonMobil Executive Lee Tillman as president and CEO, effective August 1, 2013.
Meanwhile, Cazalot will continue as executive chairman until his retirement in order to help in a smooth leadership transition. Cazalot has been at the helm of Marathon Oil for almost 14 years and has been serving the oil and gas industry for the past 41 years.
Cazalot, aged 62, joined Marathon Oil as president in March 2000. He went on to become CEO in January 2002 and chairman in July 2011. He began his long career in the oil and gas industry by joining Texaco, Inc. in 1972 as a geophysicist. He grew through the ranks of the company to leave the company while he was serving as president of Texaco's worldwide production operations in 1999.
The Houston, Texas-based company said its board intends to nominate Dennis Reilley, currently Marathon Oil lead director, as non-executive chairman upon Cazalot's retirement. Reilley has been a director since 2002, and is the former non-executive chairman of Covidien Ltd. (COV).
The company's board has now elected Lee Tillman to the board of directors. Tillman most recently served as vice president of engineering for ExxonMobil Development Co. since 2010.
"Speaking for the entire Marathon Oil board of directors, we are very pleased to welcome Lee to the Company. His strong leadership skills and extensive experience in global operations, project execution and leading edge technology will be invaluable in confronting the challenges facing our Company and industry," Cazalot said in a statement.
Tillman began his career in the oil and gas industry at Exxon in 1989 as a research engineer and progressed through positions of increasing responsibility. He has extensive operations management and leadership experience.
Tillman became the upstream adviser to the ExxonMobil management committee in 2003, and became the offshore division manager of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co. in 2005. He was also the acting vice president of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co. from 2006 to 2007. Further, he served as North Sea production manager and lead country manager in Norway from 2007 to 2010.
"Marathon Oil's strong set of base and growth assets, along with a robust exploration portfolio, reputation in the industry as a valued partner and dedication to exemplary corporate values make this a position I am very proud and excited to accept," Tillman stated.
Earlier in the month, Thomas Sneed, vice president and chief information officer for Marathon Oil elected to retire, effective September 1, 2013 following more than 32 years of service. Sneed will be succeeded by Bruce McCullough, who joins the company after serving as director of global business systems at Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC).
In Thursday's regular trading session, MRO is currently trading at $33.91, up $0.51 or 1.53% on a volume of 0.65 million shares.
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