Read Online Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Steve Coll
Tags: United States, General, Biography & Autobiography, Economics, Business & Economics, Business, bought-and-paid-for, Political aspects, Industries, Infrastructure, energy, big business, Petroleum Industry and Trade, Government & Business, Corporate Power - United States, Corporate Power, Big Business - United States, Petroleum Industry and Trade - Political Aspects - United States, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Exxon Corporation
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Ronnie Black; an April sojourn to Augusta, Georgia, to attend the Masters golf tournament, where Lee might catch up with his friend Phil Mickelson or have dinner with Tom Watson; and then Easter at their winter home in Palm City, Florida. Golf was Raymond’s most discernible passion away from the office—he regularly joined in corporate tournaments. When Raymond had business in Asia, he and Charlene sometimes managed to fit in a vacation break in Hawaii on the way out or the way back. In the autumn he often spent Thanksgiving at the Augusta golf club again and might include a stag trip to Exxon’s vast, corporate-owned bird-hunting ranch in southeastern Texas, near the town of Alice. At Christmas the Raymonds typically retreated again to Palm City, Florida.
Throughout the year they made weeks-long international trips on which the Exxon chief might negotiate for or ratify the final terms of new oil production contracts, attend a ribbon cutting at a new refinery, deliver a speech at an industry conference, or chair a board meeting. On a trip to London in 1997, the couple picked up an expensive painting; panicked Aviation Services and Global Security employees, fearing theft, guarded the artwork for nearly two weeks aboard November One Hundred Alpha as the Raymonds hopped on Exxon business from city to city. As their wealth grew, they collected not only art, but real estate. They added a $3.8 million house in the desert near Palm Springs, California, and a $7 million home in Scottsdale, Arizona. 2
Raymond and Charlene had both grown up in modest circumstances in the American heartland. Both were devout Christians. Raymond’s Plains-bred parents had raised him as a member of the Evangelical United Brethren in Watertown, South Dakota, a denomination that later became part of the United Methodist Church. Charlene came of age in a German Catholic family from Kohler, Wisconsin. They met at the University of Wisconsin and married when Raymond was twenty-three. Raymond converted to Catholicism and thereafter rarely missed a mass; in Saudi Arabia, which banned Christian churches, he attended services inside the U.S. embassy.
Although Charlene had earned a college degree in journalism, when she gave birth to triplet boys, she devoted herself to them and to her husband. Even at home, Raymond worried about discipline. After he rose within Exxon, he tried to control his family’s use of corporate jets—he barred his triplet sons from flying on them, fearing that if he allowed them the privilege, it would encourage lax behavior by other Exxon executives. Charlene could be as demanding as her husband, and she could also be extremely frugal, as if clinging to lessons imparted during the Depression-influenced era of her youth. Deplaning in Berlin or Paris, she might fill a bag with snacks while complaining about the prices charged for breakfast in the luxury hotels where she and her husband stayed. 3
Aviation Services staff talked among themselves about which ExxonMobil executives with jet privileges were the most arrogant or prone to temper over petty problems. The capacity of some of Exxon’s multimillionaire leaders to become abusively angry over delays caused by bad weather, pilot changes, or mechanical problems never ceased to amaze their more modestly salaried crews.
Lee Raymond could be sharp-tongued, but he was not the worst offender in that regard. He tried to maintain a cordial formality with his travel crews and won respect, if not affection, from some of them. That was about the most that could be said of the reputation Raymond enjoyed among Exxon executives and employees more generally: He was respected. He was also feared.
Some managers who had worked in other corporations, even notably hierarchical and disciplined ones, found striking the atmosphere of terror and deference Raymond generated in the minds of many who worked for him. Although it was possible to locate people who would say that Raymond was not insulting
Throughout the year they made weeks-long international trips on which the Exxon chief might negotiate for or ratify the final terms of new oil production contracts, attend a ribbon cutting at a new refinery, deliver a speech at an industry conference, or chair a board meeting. On a trip to London in 1997, the couple picked up an expensive painting; panicked Aviation Services and Global Security employees, fearing theft, guarded the artwork for nearly two weeks aboard November One Hundred Alpha as the Raymonds hopped on Exxon business from city to city. As their wealth grew, they collected not only art, but real estate. They added a $3.8 million house in the desert near Palm Springs, California, and a $7 million home in Scottsdale, Arizona. 2
Raymond and Charlene had both grown up in modest circumstances in the American heartland. Both were devout Christians. Raymond’s Plains-bred parents had raised him as a member of the Evangelical United Brethren in Watertown, South Dakota, a denomination that later became part of the United Methodist Church. Charlene came of age in a German Catholic family from Kohler, Wisconsin. They met at the University of Wisconsin and married when Raymond was twenty-three. Raymond converted to Catholicism and thereafter rarely missed a mass; in Saudi Arabia, which banned Christian churches, he attended services inside the U.S. embassy.
Although Charlene had earned a college degree in journalism, when she gave birth to triplet boys, she devoted herself to them and to her husband. Even at home, Raymond worried about discipline. After he rose within Exxon, he tried to control his family’s use of corporate jets—he barred his triplet sons from flying on them, fearing that if he allowed them the privilege, it would encourage lax behavior by other Exxon executives. Charlene could be as demanding as her husband, and she could also be extremely frugal, as if clinging to lessons imparted during the Depression-influenced era of her youth. Deplaning in Berlin or Paris, she might fill a bag with snacks while complaining about the prices charged for breakfast in the luxury hotels where she and her husband stayed. 3
Aviation Services staff talked among themselves about which ExxonMobil executives with jet privileges were the most arrogant or prone to temper over petty problems. The capacity of some of Exxon’s multimillionaire leaders to become abusively angry over delays caused by bad weather, pilot changes, or mechanical problems never ceased to amaze their more modestly salaried crews.
Lee Raymond could be sharp-tongued, but he was not the worst offender in that regard. He tried to maintain a cordial formality with his travel crews and won respect, if not affection, from some of them. That was about the most that could be said of the reputation Raymond enjoyed among Exxon executives and employees more generally: He was respected. He was also feared.
Some managers who had worked in other corporations, even notably hierarchical and disciplined ones, found striking the atmosphere of terror and deference Raymond generated in the minds of many who worked for him. Although it was possible to locate people who would say that Raymond was not insulting
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