Management committee

Darren W. Woods

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Darren Woods is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois.

Mr. Woods joined Exxon Company International in 1992 as a planning analyst in Florham Park, New Jersey. He progressed through a number of domestic and international assignments for Exxon Company International, ExxonMobil Chemical Company and ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company.

In 2005, Mr. Woods was appointed vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company in Houston, Texas, where he managed global specialty-chemical businesses. In 2008, he was named ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company’s director of refining for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and was based in Brussels. In 2010, he was appointed vice president of supply and transportation, based in Fairfax, Virginia.

Mr. Woods was appointed president of ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company and vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2012. In 2014, Mr. Woods was elected senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Effective January 1, 2016, Mr. Woods was elected president of Exxon Mobil Corporation and a member of the board of directors.

The ExxonMobil Board of Directors elected Mr. Woods as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2017.

Mr. Woods serves on the board of directors of the American Petroleum Institute and the board of trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also a member of the National Petroleum Council, the Business Roundtable, the Business Council and the Texas A&M University Engineering Advisory Council.

Neil A. Chapman

Senior Vice President

Neil Chapman joined the Exxon Mobil Corporation Management Committee as senior vice president in 2018. 

He joined Esso Chemical Company in 1984 at the Fawley Refinery in the United Kingdom upon graduating from the University of Surrey. He is a native of Stoke-on-Trent, England. 

Mr. Chapman advanced through engineering, operations, planning and commercial roles in various chemical affiliates in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the United States and Hong Kong prior to the 1999 merger between Exxon and Mobil. He then served as ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s Asia Pacific polyolefins sales manager before becoming the project executive of the Fujian integrated refining and ethylene joint venture project in China. 

In 2002, Mr. Chapman took over responsibility for aviation fuels marketing and, later, industrial and wholesale fuels. In 2005, he was appointed vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company’s global polyethylene business. 

In 2006, Mr. Chapman served as executive assistant to the chairman of Exxon Mobil Corporation and in 2007 as president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company. 
Mr. Chapman returned to ExxonMobil Chemical Company in 2011 as senior vice president in charge of the company’s global polymers businesses. In 2015 he became ExxonMobil Chemical Company president, a position he held until taking his current position. 

Mr. Chapman has served as a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the American Chemistry Council, the board of directors of the International Council of Chemical Associations, and the board of directors and executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers.  In 2014, Mr. Chapman was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater, the University of Surrey. 

Kathryn A. Mikells

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Kathryn A. "Kathy" Mikells joined Exxon Mobil Corporation in August 2021 as senior vice president and chief financial officer. As CFO, Ms. Mikells leads the company’s finance functions, including treasury, tax, and audit as well as the company’s strategic planning, global services, and investor relations functions.

Before coming to ExxonMobil, Ms. Mikells spent six years as chief financial officer for London-based Diageo, Plc.  At Diageo, the global beverage manufacturer and marketer, she led all traditional corporate finance functions and oversaw the company’s supply chain and procurement, strategy and business development, and shared services and information technology departments before her departure in June 2021. 

Ms. Mikells' career in finance spans several industries. After receiving a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois, Ms. Mikells began her career in 1987 at General Electric Company as an investment analyst. After leaving GE, she held finance leadership positions in banking, including the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

In 1994, after earning a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Chicago, she began a 16-year career at United Airlines Holdings Incorporated, where she served in several corporate planning and financial roles before being appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer in 2008. 

After her time with United, Ms. Mikells went on to serve as chief financial officer at ADT Incorporated and Xerox Holdings Corporation before joining Diageo in 2015. 

She is a native of Chicago.

Jack P. Williams

Senior Vice President

Jack Williams was elected senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2014.

Before taking his current position, he was executive vice president of ExxonMobil Production Company. From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Williams was president of XTO Energy Inc., which ExxonMobil acquired in 2010. Before that he was the vice president responsible for Asia projects in ExxonMobil Development Company.

From 2007-2009, he was the vice president of engineering for ExxonMobil Production Company. From 2005-2007, he served as an upstream advisor for Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Other past positions include oversight of the company’s North Slope and Cook Inlet interests in Anchorage, Alaska; deputy production manager for the company’s South China Sea operations in Malaysia; two years in the U.S. upstream planning organization; operations superintendent for the company's East Texas field areas; and operations manager for the company’s Gulf Coast and offshore California properties.

He joined Exxon in April 1987 as a drilling engineer in New Orleans, Louisiana, after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

Mr. Williams, a native of Mansfield, Ohio, is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a member of the Board of Visitors for the Vanderbilt School of Engineering.