John Verity succeeds Neil Chapman as president of chemicals unit. ExxonMobil Corp. announced on Friday that its board of directors has elected Neil Chapman, 55, to the position of senior vice president and member of the company’s management committee, from which future chief executives are usually chosen.
Other members of the management committee are Darren Woods, chairman and CEO, and senior vice presidents Mark Albers, Michael Dolan, Andrew Swiger and Jack Williams. John Verity, 59, has been appointed to succeed Chapman as president of ExxonMobil Chemical with both assignments effective 1 January 2018. Verity is currently vice president/polymers at ExxonMobil Chemical.
“Neil’s election results from the company’s planning process that is designed to ensure management committee leadership continuity. Disciplined succession planning is critically important to the long-term success of the company and a competitive advantage for the corporation,” said Darren Woods, chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil Corp. Chapman joined Esso Chemical in 1984 at the Esso refinery in Fawley, United Kingdom. He has held a range of senior engineering, operations, planning and marketing roles in various chemical affiliates in the UK, Belgium, the United States and Hong Kong.
Following the merger of Exxon and Mobil, Chapman was chemicals sales manager in the Asia Pacific region and project executive of the Fujian integrated refining and ethylene joint venture project in China. In 2002 he joined the fuels marketing division as head of ExxonMobil Aviation International in the UK before becoming vice president, industrial and wholesale fuels based in the US.
Chapman became vice president for the global polyethylene business unit of ExxonMobil Chemical in 2005 and was appointed executive assistant to the chairman of Exxon Mobil Corp. in 2006. He became president of ExxonMobil Global Services Co. in 2007 and was appointed senior vice president for polymers with ExxonMobil Chemical in 2011. He has been in his current role since 2015.
Verity joined Exxon Chemical in 1980 and held sales, marketing and strategic planning roles in its polyethylene business in Europe. He held various management roles at the butyl rubber plant at Fawley, UK, and moved to the US in 1998 in a planning assignment in the polyethylene business. In 2000, he became the Americas marketing manager for the ExxonMobil Chemical’s polyethylene business. He was appointed president of Univation Technologies in 2001.
Verity returned to ExxonMobil Chemical in 2005 as vice president of R&D. He later served as vice president of the polyethylene business, vice president of the polyolefins business and was given added responsibility for the adhesion and solution performance plastics businesses units as vice president of plastics and resins. Verity has served in his current role since 2015.
By Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
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