ExxonMobil Chemical names new president as Pryor plans retirement

Stephen D. Pryor, president of ExxonMobil Chemical and vice president of ExxonMobil, has elected to retire on January 1, 2015, after more than 44 years of service. 

ExxonMobil said it anticipated that its board of directors will appoint Neil A. Chapman as the new president of ExxonMobil Chemical and also elect him as a vice president of the corporation, effective January 1, 2015. 

Chapman is currently senior vice president of polymers at ExxonMobil Chemical.

Pryor, 64, joined Mobil Corp. in 1971 and has held a number of financial and managerial positions in the US, Cyprus, the UK and New Zealand. In 1993, he was appointed vice president of Mobil Chemical Co. and general manager of the plastics division.

In 1996, he became president of Mobil Asia Pacific and in 1998, executive vice president responsible for Mobil’s international downstream business. Following the merger between Exxon and Mobil, he was appointed president of ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties Co., and in 2002 became executive vice president at ExxonMobil Chemical. 

Pryor was appointed president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Co. in 2004 and president of ExxonMobil Chemical in 2008.

Pryor was born in New York, New York. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University.

Chapman, meanwhile, joined ExxonMobil's fuels marketing division as head of ExxonMobil Aviation International in the UK before becoming vice president of industrial and wholesale fuels based in the US. Chapman became vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical's global polyethylene business in 2005 and was appointed executive assistant to the chairman of ExxonMobil in 2006. He became president of ExxonMobil Global Services Co. in 2007 and was appointed to his current role in 2011.

Chapman was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Surrey University, England.