Sparked by the retirement of CEO Ken Derr, announced yesterday,Chevron Corp. followed up with a list of upper management jobchanges. The San Francisco, CA-based energy giant’s board ofdirectors selected its current vice chairman and director, DaveO’Reilly, to succeed Derr as CEO effective Jan. 1, 2000.

Derr, 63, led Chevron for 11 years. The company announcementsaid during most of his tenure, Chevron led its oil competitors intotal shareholder return. It was a period when Chevron’s marketcapitalization increased from $15 billion to about $60 billion andits annual cost structure was reduced by about $2.4 billion. MikeLibby, a Chevron spokesman, confirmed Derr had undergone successfulsurgery for prostate cancer last year, saying that was not a factorin his decision to retire.

O’Reilly has worked in varying jobs at Chevron since 1968. Hewas selected to be vice chairman in 1998. In that capacity, he wasresponsible for Chevron’s worldwide exploration and productionactivities. He has also been leading the successful effort toreduce the company’s cost structure by $500 million, the companysaid.

Dick Matzke, a member of the board of directors and president ofChevron Overseas Petroleum Inc. (COPI), will succeed O’Reilly asvice chairman. He will be responsible for Chevron’s worldwideupstream activities, with a primary emphasis on formulating andimplementing the growth component of the company’s exploration andproduction strategies.

Jim Sullivan will continue as vice chairman responsible forworldwide refining, marketing and chemical operations. PeterRobertson, will take over COPI once Matzke moves on. Robertson’scurrent job as the president of Chevron North America Explorationand Production will be handed to George Kirkland, current chairmanand managing director of Chevron Nigeria Ltd.

These upper management changes occur at an important time forChevron, which has become a constant member of the rumor mill sinceother energy giants, such as British Petroleum, Amoco, Arco, Exxon andMobil have been involved in recent mergers. So far this year, Chevronhas been rumored to be a party to two mergers: one with Texaco andanother with Phillips Petroleum (see Daily GPI, June 4; Sept. 27). In both cases, the other companyhas rejected Chevron as a merger partner.

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