Exxon Corp. President Lee Raymond was named...

Exxon Corp. President Lee Raymond was named to become chairman and chief executive of the country’s largest energy company this spring, succeeding Lawrence Rawl, who is retiring.

The transition had been expected and will likely occur at the company’s annual shareholders meeting April 28, Exxon said in a statement.

Rawl led the company through its worst environmental and public relations crisis--the March, 1989, Exxon Valdez oil spill, the largest in U.S. waters--and faced stinging claims that the company’s response was too slow.

Rawl, 64, will reach the Irving, Tex.-based firm’s mandatory retirement age in May.

Raymond, 54, became president of Exxon when Rawl reached the chief executive’s office in January, 1987. He joined the company as a research engineer in Tulsa, Okla., in 1963.