Exxon shareholders have rejected a high-profile resolution to strip one management role from current Chair-‘n’-CEO Rex Tillerson and hire an independent chairperson. The influential Rockefeller family, along with various other investors, had pushed for the split. “Despite top-notch individual directors, [Exxon’s] record over the last decade, particularly regarding climate change, demonstrates that debate has been lacking,” explained Karina Litvack of investor F&C Asset Management. The resolution received only 39.5 percent approval at an annual shareholder meeting Wednesday; a resolution to adopt greenhouse-gas reduction targets was also shot down. Exxon did, however, make good on its policy to not overtly fund climate-change skeptics, pulling moola from nine groups whose “position on climate change could divert attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner.”
