Head of Exxon to hold on to two titles

Rex Tillerson will retain the titles of both chairman and chief executive at Exxon Mobil Corp. after the failure Wednesday of a highly public push led by the Rockefeller family to separate the jobs at the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company.

Stripping Tillerson of the chairman’s job in favor of an independent director was the main focus of Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil’s annual shareholder meeting.

In the end, the measure got the support of only 39.5% of shareholders, slightly less than last year’s 40%, despite a hard push by descendants of John D. Rockefeller, founder of Exxon Mobile predecessor Standard Oil Corp. A variety of institutional investors also lined up behind the proposal.

This marked the seventh time a proposal to split the roles of chairman and CEO was considered.

After the meeting, Tillerson, who’s held both positions since 2006, said continued strong support to change company leadership -- despite massive profits in recent quarters -- was not lost on him.

“It just reemphasizes to me the importance of our continuing efforts to communicate better with shareholders and with the public and with policymakers,” Tillerson said.

That said, none of the 17 shareholder proposals considered at the three-hour meeting received enough support to pass. All were opposed by Exxon’s board of directors.

Introduced primarily by environmental-minded investors and shareholder activists, they sought such things as quantitative goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, shareholder input on executive compensation and a report on the likely consequences of climate change for developing countries and poor communities between now and 2030.

Shares of Exxon Mobil rose 63 cents Wednesday to $90.43.