Patricia Woertz: Conquering The World Of Men

We try at best to emphasize that a person is hired or promoted based on qualification; it’s hard not notice the achievements of Patricia Woertz in what is basically the world of men. 

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1953 Woertz was often taken on summer tours by her parents to look at the business side of America. They visited an oil refinery and at another time a window factory. She also saw the headquarters of Gulf Oil and Mellon Bank.

In 1974 she graduated from Pennsylvania State University with an accounting degree. Woertz was already something of odd thumb back then. She took the job offer coming from Ernst & Young and was one of only two women comprising the 200 recruits.

One of the accounting firm’s clients was Gulf Oil Corp. who eventually hired her in 1977. Woertz proved her worth.  Even when Gulf Oil merged with Chevron she was given the critical task of looking for ways to pay down debt while divesting assets to meet federal regulatory requirements.  By 1991 Woertz became head of strategic planning at Chevron.

She then became president of Chevron Canada and later Chevron International in 1995.  In 2001, Woertz became executive vice president in charge of downstream operations when Chevron merged with Texaco. She had a rough first year in charge of 19 refineries in 180 countries. Losses caused her to act decisively including the firing of senior executives.  By 2004 profit stood at $3.25 billion.

She retired from Chevron on February 2006 only to wind up as CEO and president of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) on April 2006; the chairmanship was added in 2007. ADM is one of the world’s largest farm-commodities processors.