Steve Williams earned a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Exeter University. His is also a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard Business School and also the business economics program at Oxford University.
Steve held various executive positions at Esso Petroleum Company Limited, an affiliate of Exxon. He then moved to Octel Corporation in 1995 where held a number of number of executive positions. Steve joined Suncor Energy Inc. in May 2002. He was an Executive Vice President of Oil Sands at Suncor Energy Inc. Steve served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Suncor Energy until May 30, 2003. He served as the Chief Operating Officer at Suncor Energy from March 5, 2007 to May 1, 2012.
Steve became the President of the company on December 1, 2011 and then also Chief Executive Officer on May 1, 2012.
While his predecessor was known for making bold decisions such as the 2009 deal worth $22.9 billion to acquire Petro-Canada, Steve has taken a more measured approach given the environment he came in. When oil prices collapsed the company made huge losses with debt totalling more than $13 billion. While being more cautious it does not mean at the expense of profitability. Steve is more concerned with profitable growth than growth for the sake of just growing.
Given the assets the company currently has which includes 27 billion barrels of resources on the books with 23 billion of it oil sands, Steve looks to better operational efficiencies than major expansions which means improving their technological capacities. He has also made it clear that investments in the company’s future will not dry up.
Steve is a fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and is a member of the Institute of Directors. He is one of 12 founding CEOs in Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA). He is also a member of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
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