Shareholders Raise Issue of Oxy Directors’ Age, Race

The age and the ethnicity of Occidental Petroleum’s directors were the subject of some spirited remarks during the company’s annual shareholders meeting Friday.

Shareholders defeated a proposal that would have forced board members to retire at age 72. Nine members of Oxy’s 17-person board are 72 or older. The youngest member is Michael A. Hammer, 33, a company vice president and grandson of the chairman.

“This is not a picture of a board preparing for an orderly transition,” said Charles Fuller, who presented the proposal for the third year in a row. The proposal was opposed by 83% of shareholders who voted on the issue, according to the company.

“The policy of the company is to select directors that are fully qualified,” said 90-year-old Chairman Armand Hammer, who frequently met with applause during the two-hour meeting.

Shareholders reelected five incumbent board members to three-year terms, including Hammer and President Ray R. Irani.

Stockholder Removed

The mostly routine meeting of 1,500 shareholders was disrupted when one shareholder, Douglas E. Moore, president of a Washington energy company, was carried out after asking Hammer why there were no blacks on the all-white board.

“I will sit down like the Chinese students,” said Moore, who was then carried out of the auditorium of the Scottish Rite Temple on Wilshire Boulevard by security guards.

“He was out of order and he was disrupting the meeting,” said an Oxy spokesman, explaining why Moore was removed from the auditorium.

Moore later returned during the question and answer session and asked Hammer: “Why are there no blacks or African-Americans on your board? We buy your beef, we buy your gas and we buy your coal.”

Hammer responded by saying, “if a black director seems worthy and experienced enough, I’m sure we will consider them.”

“It took us years to find a qualified woman,” he added.

During the meeting, the company announced that two of its North Sea oil fields, which were closed last year after an oil rig explosion, will be reopened in June with combined production of about 100,000 barrels a day.

Oxy also said the board had approved a 62 1/2-cent dividend.