Chevron Corporation’s Board of Directors is considering plans to extend the company’s mandatory retirement age to allow its chief executive officer time to find, train, and prepare his successor.
Board Members for the San Ramon, California-based oil and gas giant said the company lacks a suitable internal candidate to replace current Chevron CEO Mike Wirth upon retiring at age 65 in late 2025.
Without an obvious internal candidate, Chevron’s Board said it would consider a proposal to waive the company’s fixed retirement age of 65 until the company landed on the correct successor candidate, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.
In addition, Chevron’s Board of Directors reportedly said they saw little to no reason in forcing an executive replacement, given Wirth’s strong performance running the company as chairman and CEO following his appointment in 2018.
Chevron’s Board of Directors will supposedly undergo a 12-month succession planning process in order to locate and prepare the next CEO candidate.
The WSJ reported that the year-long process will offer the company some wiggle room to explore a future in which oil dependence and demand face sweeping cutbacks.
Periods of global economic and geopolitical uncertainty tend to be inopportune times for companies to switch up their executive team, according to Cathy Anterasian, a consultant for the Chicago-based executive succession services firm Spencer Stuart.
“This isn’t a great environment to drop in a brand new CEO,” Anterasian told the WSJ.
Anterasian suggested that Chevron’s Board of Directors might feel more confident about their decision if they push the mandatory retirement age back by a year or two. By doing this, she says that Chevron will be able to ensure a higher degree of internal candidate readiness.
The Dallas Express reached out to Chevron’s media relations team for clarification about the alleged retirement waiver. However, the company did not immediately respond to the request for comment.