Family in the News: The Rockefellers

Family in the News: The Rockefellers

By Chrystia Freeland

Published: May 2 2008 19:20 | Last updated: May 2 2008 19:20

MITN Rockefellers

When a Rockefeller turns 21 he or she publicly introduces him or herself to the wider Rockefeller clan at one of the bi-annual family gatherings – in June at the Playhouse on the grounds of the historic family estate in New York’s Hudson Valley or in New York City over Christmas. “They tell a little about themselves and people ­welcome them,” Peter Johnson, a longtime family consigliere says. “The idea is to say you are part of the family.”

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Rockefellers to support splitting Exxon CEO, chairman roles

JOE CARROLL

Bloomberg News

April 29, 2008

CHICAGO -- Descendants of 19th-century oil magnate John D. Rockefeller want the company he founded, Exxon Mobil Corp., to bar the chief executive officer from serving as chairman so management can't delay action on climate change.

Rockefeller family members, including Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, a great-granddaughter of the scion, and Peter O'Neill, head of the Rockefeller family committee dealing with Exxon Mobil issues, will announce their support on April 30 for a shareholder resolution to split the positions, a family spokesman said yesterday.

The proposal, submitted by activist investor Robert Monks, says separating the positions would reduce the danger of "a lack of responsiveness and arbitrariness," according to an April 10 public filing. The resolution cites former chairman and CEO Lee Raymond's curt response to a question at the 2004 annual meeting about global warming from Dale McCormick, then-treasurer of Maine.

"This is the first time the Rockefellers have really come out front on this in this way," Patrick Mitchell, a Hastings Group representative acting as spokesman for the family, said in a telephone interview. Shareholders will vote on the resolution at Exxon Mobil's annual meeting on May 28 in Dallas.

Mr. Monk's resolution was backed last year by 40 per cent of shareholders, up from 34.3 per cent in 2006. The Irving, Tex.- based company, led by Rex Tillerson since Mr. Raymond's January, 2006, retirement, opposes the proposal, one of 17 shareholder resolutions up for consideration at the annual meeting.

Mr. Mitchell said he didn't know how much of Exxon Mobil's ownership still is concentrated in Rockefeller family hands. The company was formed by Exxon Corp.'s $85-billion (U.S.) acquisition of Mobil Corp. in 1999, which combined two entities born in the court-ordered 1911 dissolution of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust.

Exxon Mobil is the world's largest company by market value and pumps more oil than every member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Saudi Arabia and Iran.