Mike Celata has been named regional director of the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Region for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Celata had been serving as acting regional director of the region, which manages more than 4,600 active leases across 25 million acres of land on the OCS. Previously, he was deputy regional director. Celata began his career in 1984 with an ExxonMobil Corp. predecessor. Celata has worked for the OCS regional office for 20 years, and from 2005-2010 he was chief of resource studies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and physics from Bowdoin College, and he attended the Boston College Master of Science Program where he was a seismological research assistant.

ExxonMobil Corp.‘s Ken Cohen, 64, vice president of public and government affairs, is retiring Jan. 1 after more than 38 years with the company. Cohen joined Exxon USA in June 1977 and has held his current post since late 1999. He reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65 in January. In recent years, Cohen has penned ExxonMobil’s Perspectives blog to offer corporate views on “issues, policies, technologies and trends that are shaping the energy industry.” Of late he has posted a series of articles defending the company from allegations that it misled investors about how its operations may impact climate change (see Daily GPI, Nov. 6;Oct. 23). The board is expected to elevate Suzanne McCarron to vice president; she now is general manager of public and government affairs, and she is president of the ExxonMobil Foundation.