Chevron Taps Derr for CEO Job
Kenneth T. Derr, the 52-year-old Chevron vice chairman who oversaw Chevron’s acquisition of Gulf, has been named chairman and chief executive, effective Jan. 1.
Derr succeeds George M. Keller, who will retire at the end of the year at the age of 65 after a seven-year tenure as chairman that saw him emerge as the petroleum industry’s chief spokesman.
Derr’s appointment, which came at a board meeting Friday in Calgary, Canada, was no surprise. Last May, the genial, 6-foot, 3-inch, 225-pound officer was featured in a Fortune magazine cover story entitled “Tomorrow’s CEOs.”
His chief rival for the top spot had been Chevron’s other vice chairman, Dennis Bonney, 57, who heads Chevron’s international operations. Derr currently oversees Chevron’s domestic businesses as well as its research, chemical and coal operations.
But it was his skillful handling of the details of Chevron’s 1984 takeover of Gulf--a $13.3-billion deal that nearly doubled Chevron’s oil and gas reserves and remains the biggest acquisition in U.S. history--that catapulted Derr into contention for the chairmanship.
Though neither Derr nor Keller were available for interviews on Friday, Derr said earlier this year that his toughest business calls involved “the people-related decisions after the merger with Gulf: deciding which offices to shut down and which jobs to eliminate.”
Derr did the job by creating 37 study groups to analyze Chevron and Gulf operations and fit the pieces together. Though Chevron shed 27,000 jobs in the process, only 2,000 people were laid off; the rest either departed when their units were sold or they took early retirement or other incentives to leave.
