Tag Archives: Stephen Chazen

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Tension Brewing at the Top of This Energy Giant

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By Taylor Muckerman and Joel South, The Motley Fool

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In the case of Occidental Petroleum , the company just doesn’t seem to be trading at a share price worthy of the sum of its parts. An article in Barron’s stated that the company’s individual parts could be worth up to $125 per share while the company currently trades around $84. How has the price arrived at this supposedly depressed level? Well, it has traded down 8% since last April versus the S&P 500 , which is up over 16% during that same time frame.

At odds about the company’s future
The board at Occidental, led by its former CEO, is currently seeking a potential replacement for Stephen Chazen because of the path the company has trended down recently. What’s fascinating about this is that 10 board members’ statuses are up for shareholder vote in the near future. This will be the perfect forum for the shareholders to decide the direction that the company takes. They can side with the board by keeping them all or voice their approval of Chazen by showing one or more the boardroom door.

Looking for another company with boardroom and CEO issues?
Energy investors would be hard-pressed to find another company trading at a deeper discount than Chesapeake Energy. Its share price depreciated after negative news surfaced concerning the company’s management and spiraling debt picture. While the debt issues still persist, giant steps have been taken to help mitigate the problems. To learn more about Chesapeake and its enormous potential, you’re invited to check out The Motley Fool’s brand-new premium report on the company. Simply click here now to access your copy.

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From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/12/tension-brewing-at-the-top-of-this-energy-giant/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Occidental's Board Issues Unanimous Statement on CEO Succession Process

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Occidental’s Board Issues Unanimous Statement on CEO Succession Process

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYS: OXY) — The Occidental Petroleum Board of Directors today issued the following unanimous statement in response to questions about the CEO succession process announced in February:

In 2010, as a result of shareholder concerns, the Board instituted a leadership succession plan. Ray Irani, 78, stepped down as CEO and became Executive Chairman of the Board. Stephen Chazen, 66, who had been President and COO, became President and CEO. The Board also announced that Dr. Irani will retire as Executive Chairman and as a member of the Board effective at the end of 2014.

During the past two years, the Company focused on three main objectives: achieving production growth in the oil and gas business; generating rates of return on invested capital significantly in excess of our cost of capital; and delivering consistent annual dividend growth. The Company met these goals, but 2012 presented challenges, including disappointing stock performance. Our focus on growing production led to some execution inefficiencies, resulting in increases in operating and capital costs. To remedy this, the Company began taking aggressive steps to improve operational efficiencies without impacting overall production growth or compromising our standards regarding health, safety and the environment. These actions reflect the commitment of the Board and senior management to improve profitability and total shareholder return in 2013 and beyond.

As these 2012 events unfolded, the independent directors began to reflect on the longer term succession plans for the Company’s senior management. After extensive deliberation, they concluded that now is the time to seek new leadership to be in place for the longer term. During executive session meetings, they determined, in accordance with the Board’s on-going succession planning responsibilities, to begin the process to identify a successor to Mr. Chazen. The search committee of independent directors retained a search firm to assist with the process. Given that Mr. Chazen was to be named as a nominee for the Board in the Company’s Annual Meeting proxy, it was determined that the search process required disclosure.

In regard to recent press articles and inaccurate speculation, the independent directors reiterate that there is no “fight at the top.” All decisions regarding CEO succession planning were made over many meetings by the independent directors alone in executive session, in accordance with best governance practices. Dr. Irani did not attend, and did not …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance