Vicki Hollub, a mineral engineer by trade, has been the CEO of Occidental Petroleum since April 2016 – the first woman ever to head a major American oil company. Hollub graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in mineral engineering in 1981 and immediately accepted a job with Cities Service, which was acquired by Occidental Petroleum Corporation in 1982. “Oxy” has been her professional home ever since, and she worked her way up to CEO from the bottom. Over the course of 30 years, she held a variety of technical and management positions for Occidental in the United States, Russia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
Hollub led Occidental's expansion in the Permian Basin in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico in 2005 and was Manager of Operations for Occidental's Permian business from 2009 to 2011. She continued to rise through the ranks and became Executive Vice President of Occidental's operations in California in 2012. By 2015, she was the Executive Vice President of Occidental Petroleum and President of Occidental Oil & Gas Corp in the Americas. This allowed her to oversee operations in Latin America and have access to worldwide exploration.
Hollub officially became president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum in April 2016 and is responsible for operations, strategy, and financial management. "The board selected Vicki based on her strong track record of successfully growing our domestic oil and gas business profitably and efficiently," Stephen Chazen, her predecessor, said in a statement.
Hollub inherited her position during a period of crisis. At the time, the oil industry was facing one of its worst downturns in decades. Crude oil prices had tanked and Hollub had to drastically cut costs and make exits from inessential operations in the Middle East and North Africa. She managed all of this without having to lay off a single person working at Occidental, which was unprecedented compared to other downturns over the company’s history. Forbes has since published a piece detailing her monumental contributions to the company’s financial stability.
Hollub currently serves on the boards of the American Petroleum Institute and Khalifa University for Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi and chairs the U.S.-Colombia Business Council.