Good morning. Chevron is moving its CFO from the finance chair to the center of its operating business.
Eimear Bonner, Chevron’s CFO, will become president of oil, products and gas on Jan. 1, taking charge of the company’s core business across the value chain. Jeff Gustavson, currently president of new energies, will succeed her as CFO, the company announced Monday.
Bonner’s career at Chevron has followed a unique sequence: engineer, technology chief, CFO, and now operating president. That combination could make her a particularly well-rounded candidate to lead an oil major, although Chevron is not saying whether CEO succession is part of the plan.
She joined Chevron in 1998 as an offshore petroleum engineer in the United Kingdom. Over more than two decades, Bonner held engineering, operating, and strategy positions, including general director of Tengizchevroil LLP in Kazakhstan. In 2021, she became Chevron’s first female chief technology officer. Three years later, she made the transition from CTO to CFO.
In her new role as president, Chevron said Bonner will be responsible for safe and reliable operations, disciplined capital allocation, asset-class excellence, and value-chain optimization.
The assignment is more than an operating role. It puts her in a position to apply the financial and strategic perspective she gained as CFO to some of Chevron’s biggest operational challenges.
I asked Chevron whether Bonner and Gustavson are considered potential internal successors to Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth, who has led the company for nearly a decade.
“Chevron maintains a robust succession planning process overseen by the board,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We have strong leadership across the company and a deep bench of experienced executives prepared to lead the business. Our strategy, priorities and commitment to disciplined execution remain unchanged, and we are well positioned for continued success.”
For recruiting experts, Bonner’s sequence of assignments is notable. Scott W. Simmons, co-managing partner at executive-search firm Crist Kolder Associates, described her progression as a “perfect script” for CEO development. Her technology and finance assignments gave her “in-the-weeds training” in two critical areas, he said.
“The CFO role provides an incredibly unique vantage point that allows an executive to see across the entire enterprise,” Simmons said. He expects boards to continue using rotations through the CFO job as part of CEO-development plans. “A variety of experience is most important for growing future CEOs, and Bonner’s background is an excellent blueprint,” he said.
Turning scale into returns
The CFO transition comes at a consequential moment for Chevron (No. 21 on the Fortune 500). In the second quarter, Chevron reported $12.1 billion in earnings and a 21% return on capital employed, along with record U.S. production and a 20% year-over-year increase in worldwide production, driven in part by legacy Hess assets and growth in the Permian Basin and Gulf of America.
The challenge now is to turn that scale into higher returns. Morningstar analyst Allen Good wrote Oct. 1 that Chevron is targeting higher returns and greater free cash flow through 2030, supported by volume growth, margin expansion, cost reductions, and operational improvements.
Those are precisely the objectives that put an operating executive’s judgment to the test: where to invest, which assets to prioritize, where to cut costs, and how aggressively to pursue growth. Bonner has seen Chevron from the engineering floor, the technology organization, and the CFO’s office. Now, she will have to run the business itself.
Sheryl EstradaSheryl.Estrada@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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