Exxon CEO Lee Raymond, the ‘Darth Vader of global warming’, dies at 87

Lee Raymond, the former head of Exxon Mobil who oversaw the biggest corporate merger in the history of the oil industry and was derided as “the Darth Vader of global warming” for his scepticism toward climate change, has died. He was 87.

“Lee was a remarkable leader who transformed not just ExxonMobil but the global energy landscape,” an Exxon spokesperson said on Wednesday in a statement. “His legacy will forever remain a pillar of this company.”

The son of a South Dakota railroad engineer, Raymond became one of corporate America’s most prominent leaders as chief executive officer of Exxon Corp from 1993 to 2005. He was known for a severe leadership style and would sometimes ridicule Wall Street analysts for questions he perceived as frivolous.

He led Exxon into its 1999 all-stock acquisition of Mobil Corp that combined Exxon’s financial discipline and deep pockets with one of the world’s most extensive exploration portfolios, including vast gas fields in Indonesia and Qatar. With an equity value of $US82 billion, it was the world’s largest energy takeover, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

As the combined company’s first CEO, Raymond instituted sweeping safety protocols that became industry standard and lifted annual profits to record highs as Exxon Mobil became the largest company in Wall Street’s S&P 500 Index.

By Raymond’s departure at the end of 2005, the company had amassed a $US29 billion cash balance and oil and natural gas reserves sufficient to sustain production for another 15 years. Investors who held Exxon shares for the entirety of Raymond’s reign reaped average annual returns of 14 per cent at a time when the S&P 500 yielded 10 per cent a year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Still, his $US357 million retirement package infuriated investors and politicians.

“He had a remarkable tenure leading this corporation through a lot of different business environments, different conditions,” Rex Tillerson, who succeeded Raymond as chairman and CEO, said during Exxon’s annual shareholders’ meeting in 2006. Raymond “positioned this corporation to achieve the kind of industry leadership that we have enjoyed”.

Raymond’s hostility to climate-change activism was also part of his legacy, earning him the Darth Vader comparison from Greenpeace, the international environmental protest group. He argued strongly against the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set the path for countries to adopt targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

For years, he maintained that the science behind global warming was uncertain. “Let’s agree there’s a lot we re