Message from Darren Woods, ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO

Background: On June 17, 2024, U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman dismissed as moot ExxonMobil’s action against Arjuna Capital based on Arjuna’s unconditional and irrevocable promise not to resubmit the challenged proposal. This decision comes a little more than two weeks after the company’s investors sent a powerful message by overwhelmingly re-electing all of its directors and soundly rejecting all four shareholder proposals at this year’s Annual Shareholders Meeting.

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2 min read

• June 18, 2024

“Our lawsuit put a spotlight on the widespread abuse of the shareholder proxy submission process. In this particular case, the defendants withdrew their proxy submission twice in an effort to convince the court that our case against them was moot. Both attempts failed and, yesterday, the court went one step further and made it clear that Arjuna is bound by its commitment to not submit, or work with others to submit, similar proposals to ExxonMobil in the future.

"We’ve heard a lot about shareholder rights, and our suit has always been about preserving those rights because shareholder democracy is only as strong as the rules that govern it. Making repeated proposals that garner a small minority of support doesn’t serve anyone’s interest except the proponent’s. We look forward to continuing to engage with all of our investors as we grow shareholder value by providing the world with the energy and products it needs while, at the same time, working to reduce emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the global economy.”

Darren Woods
ExxonMobil Chairman and Chief Executive Officer