The task afforded Woertz the chance to learn about assets and investments. Impressed together with her financial perception in handling the job, Chevron invited Woertz to join its San Francisco workplace and work with strategic planning. In 1989, Woertz was appointed finance supervisor of Chevron Information Technology Co. and by 1991 had been named head of strategic planning. During her time at Ernst & Young, Woertz worked with both small schools and multinational companies. She developed shut ties with one consumer, Gulf Oil Corp., and in 1977 Woertz left the accounting firm to affix its forces. At the time, Gulf Oil was fortifying its inside auditing division as a end result of an investigation had uncovered that company executives had funneled millions of dollars into unlawful marketing campaign contributions.
In addition to her work duties, Woertz served on the board of administrators of the Western States Petroleum Association and the California Chamber of Commerce of Sacramento. ■ In 2001 Patricia Woertz turned an government vice president at ChevronTexaco Corporation, making her the highest-ranking girl within the male-dominated oil trade. Woertz had entered the oil industry in 1977 and used her excellent cost-cutting and team-building skills to barrel her method to the top. Her efficiency constantly earned her a spot on Fortune journal’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business. When Woertz was hired at ADM, there was a lot speak about her being the primary lady to run such a large firm.
For example, she moved operations for refining inexpensive high-acid crude from a Texaco plant in Wales to a Chevron plant in Cape Town, South Africa. Speaking to Fortune , one former ADM supervisor acknowledged that Woertz had a troublesome job on her hands as solely the eighth CEO within the firm’s 104-year historical past. In addition, the company had been run by a member of the Andreas family for decades. “By God, if you solely knew the culture there. Bringing an outsider, a woman no less, into a company that is a bastion of lifers and good ol’ boys—I can’t let you know how huge a change that’s.”
Like the oil her company refined, Woertz herself turned a much-sought-after commodity. At times, Woertz fielded three job provides per week from search companies interested in hiring her for different companies. “She exudes leadership,” one company headhunter told the Wall Street Journal . As a few of the company’s working earnings plummeted in 2002, Woertz used her accounting background to establish $100 million in refining financial savings. She studied operations at each Chevron and Texaco to establish the place merging operations would lower your expenses.
Woertz proved to be an invaluable numbers-cruncher and in 1981, Gulf Oil transferred her to Houston to go up an audit staff. After graduating from high school, Woertz felt pulled to comply with her ardour for arithmetic. Speaking at a management convention in 2004, in a speech titled “Stepping Up to Leadership in a Global World,” Woertz described how her love for math in the end drove her into the corporate world. Woertz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on St. Patrick’s Day in 1953. Her father, Chuck, worked within the business world, heading up a home-construction and development company. Woertz’s mother, Vi, was a librarian who believed summer time vacations ought to be used for instructional functions.
Woertz has additionally driven a powerful emphasis on safety, and expanded the company’s sustainability initiatives. Woertz started her career as an authorized public accountant with Ernst & Ernst — later Ernst & Young — in Pittsburgh. Attracted to the complexity and alternative of a world firm, she joined Gulf Oil Corporation in 1977, where she held numerous positions in refining, advertising, strategic planning and finance. Following the merger of Gulf and Chevron in 1987, Woertz led international operations and a worldwide workforce as president of Chevron Canada and, later, Chevron International Oil Company. With the merger of Chevron and Texaco in 2001, she was named government vp in charge of the company’s world refining, advertising, lubricant, and provide and buying and selling operations. Patricia Woertz, chairman, president and chief government officer of Archer Daniels Midland Co., from left, Kenneth Frazier, chief government officer…
In one two-week interval, she visited operations in Costa Rica, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and the Canary Islands. This international interfacing helped prepare her for the job at Archer Daniels Midland . Despite her love for the oil business greek festival god of wine, Woertz took early retirement and left Chevron in February of 2006 to pursue other opportunities. By April, Woertz had been scooped up by Decatur, Illinois-based ADM, one of the world’s largest farm-commodities processors.
The high-powered govt took time to ease into the job and made an effort to get to know the company, and its employees, from administrators to factory workers. During her first 100 days, she logged 1000’s of miles on the company’s jets. She met with 4,000 employees and visited 32 of the corporate’s operations. She additionally held a global town hall assembly via a Webcast that allowed staff from different locations the world over to ask her questions. The job at Chevron gave Woertz firsthand expertise with the worldwide market.
