Only a chosen few who enter a company wind up leading it; James is one of the few. His business and financial skills made him stand out and led to numerous promotions. Along the way he learned as much as he could about the business and also observed how other companies in the oil industry were being run and managed.
By
1980 he was vice president and treasurer of the Europe/Africa division of
Phillips until 1984. In 1990 he became the chief financial officer. James became senior vice president in 1993
then executive vice president in 1994. He reached the highest position of
chairman and CEO in 1999 until 2002.
James
used his own strategy which was not to follow the trend in the oil industry.
When many companies were investing in the Middle East, he concentrated on other
areas
like China; participating in the first offshore oil field in that country. James also focused on Venezuela, the North
Sea, North America, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
While
he followed organic grow James took the path of mergers and acquisitions as
well. James led the company’s acquisition of the Alaskan oil-and-gas production
assets of Atlantic Richfield Company in 2000. To further increase size and
revenue the company combined with Conoco another oil entity and became ConocoPhillips
in 2002. James served as president and CEO of the merged companies and became
chairman in 2004. Under his stewardship the third largest energy company in the
U.S. was created.
Among
James’s other initiatives was joining a U.S. Department Energy pilot project in
2004 to look into the use of hydrogen as transport fuel. An even much earlier initiative was to get
the then Phillips Petroleum into plastics and chemicals manufacturing.
From
acquiring companies to make ConocoPhillips into an energy giant James led the splitting
of the company into two; one that produces oil and another that refines
it. Like a good leader he adjusted with
the current environment. He retired
in May 2012 after the creation of the two independent companies.
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