Long-time Weatherford International plc Chairman and CEO Bernard J. Duroc-Danner resigned effective on Wednesday. No explanation was offered by the company. The fourth largest oilfield services operator in the world is to be led by interim CEO Krishna Shivram, who also is to continue as CFO until a new financial chief is named. Vice Chairman Robert Rayne is taking over as chairman. The board stated that it was “extremely grateful” to Duroc-Danner for “his leadership, vision, loyalty and the guidance provided to Weatherford and its predecessors for the past 30 years. He has grown and steered the company from humble beginnings into one of the leading oilfield service providers that it is today, providing numerous contributions to both the company and the industry.” Shivram, who was appointed CFO in November 2013, previously worked for Schlumberger Ltd.

Sara N. Ortwein has become president of ExxonMobil Corp.‘s onshore subsidiary XTO Energy Inc.and will be based in Fort Worth, TX. Ortwein, who previously served as president of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co., takes over from Randy Cleveland. Ortwein joined predecessor Exxon Co. U.S.A. in 1980 as a drilling engineer. In 1997, she was named reservoir evaluation and planning manager for Exxon Ventures CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), focusing on new venture pursuit and capture in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Ortwein in 2001 became a corporate upstream adviser to senior management and three years later was named production manager for U.S.-operated production. Ortwein was named vice president of engineering in 2006 for ExxonMobil Development Co. The Houston native earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

Thomas Hutchins, vice president of environmental, health and safety (EH&S) in Kinder Morgan‘s natural gas business, has been elected chairman of the INGAA Foundation‘s board of directors, for a one-year term ending Nov. 5, 2017. Hutchins has over thirty years of experience in the pipeline and energy industry, working in field engineering, project management, operations, and EH&S. He has served in leadership positions with the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America‘s EH&S Committee, Southern Gas Association‘s Environmental Committee and American Gas Association’s Safety & Health Committee, Environmental Matters Committee and Environmental Regulatory Action Committee. Hutchins, who is a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas, started his career as a field engineer, building pipelines and compressor stations for Kinder Morgan’s El Paso Natural Gas, and worked as a project engineer and project manager for the International Boundary & Water Commission. The foundation’s board also elected as vice chairman Mark Hereth, a principal with Process Performance Improvement Consultants, a subsidiary of the Blacksmith Group.