Vicki Hollub

Vicki Hollub is an American businesswoman and mineral engineer.She has been the president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Inc.(OXY)since April 2016, when she became the first woman heading a major American oil company,

Hollub officially became president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum in April 2016, with responsibility for operations, strategy and financial management. The appointment made her the first woman to head a major American oil company, and that year Fortune named her #32 on its annual list of the Most Powerful Women in business. Hollub was appointed CEO during a severe downturn in the oil industry. Under Hollub, Occidental cut production costs in response to falling crude prices but decided not to lay off employees. The company focused on existing core operations in the Middle East, the United States, and Colombia in Latin America, while continuing to sell low-yield fields in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, North Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Hollub placed "particular emphasis" on developing the Permian Basin in the southern United States, which had been a consistent driver of profits. Half of Occidental's output was coming from the Permian Basin by July 2017, while the other half came from Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Colombia. At that time, Forbes wrote that Hollub's focus on high-producing oil fields had made Occidental "leaner" and "poised to gusher cash for the next half-century."

In 2019, Occidental Petroleum acquired Anadarko Petroleum and assumed its debt. Hollub was a major proponent of the deal, and personally enlisted financing from Warren Buffett in order to complete it. Occidental did not allow shareholders to vote on the deal, which drew criticism from several major investors including sixth-largest shareholder T. Rowe Price. 

In March 2020 amid a major stock market crash and an international oil crisis that saw the company's stock price plummet dramatically, a group of activist investors led by Carl Icahn have stated their desire to replace the entire Occidental board of directors, including Hollub. Icahn wrote an open letter stating his view that Hollub and the board bought Anadarko to save their own jobs, and failed to protect shareholders' capital when they heavily indebted Occidental by borrowing over $40 billion in order to purchase Anadarko at a "massive" 65% premium.