Imperial Oil names rare Canadian as new CEO to replace outgoing Corson

Canada’s oldest oil company, Imperial Oil —  and a subsidiary of US energy giant ExxonMobil — has appointed his first Canadian-born CEO of the company in years.

John Whelan will take over as president and chief executive officer on May 8, the company said in a news release.

Whelan, a native of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, is currently ExxonMobil’s senior vice-president of conventional and heavy oil. 

He will replace Brad Corson who is set to retire after five years at the helm of the company and a period marked by both record financial performance and environmental controversies.

Corson, who took over as CEO in January 2020, led the company through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when collapsing crude prices forced dramatic spending cuts. 

Under his leadership, Imperial rebounded strongly, capitalizing on surging oil prices to deliver record production and profits. The company’s share price has soared more than 200% during his tenure.

However, Corson’s leadership was also tested by regulatory challenges. Earlier this month, the Alberta Energy Regulator laid nine charges against Imperial for a 2022 leak at its Kearl oil sands mine, which saw an estimated 5.3 million litres of toxic wastewater overflow a containment berm.

Despite the challenges, Imperial expanded its operations under Corson, investing in new projects such as a renewable diesel facility in Strathcona, Alberta, and joining the Pathways Alliance, a collaborative industry initiative aimed at reducing emissions in the oil sands sector.

“Brad steered the company through the challenges of the global pandemic, with the organization emerging to deliver the strongest financial years in company history,” David Cornhill, Imperial’s lead director, said in a statement.

Whelan, meanwhile, marks a return to a Canadian-born company insider as its CEO.

He began his career with ExxonMobil in Drayton Valley, Alberta, in 1988, and is no stranger to Imperial. 

He previously served as Imperial’s vice-president of upstream production in 2013 and later as senior vice-president, upstream, in 2017, overseeing a period of production growth at the company’s Kearl mine — the last major oil sands project to come on stream in Alberta.

With Whelan’s appointment, Imperial will once again have a Canadian-born leader guiding one of the country’s largest oil sands producers. The leadership transition comes as Canada’s energy sector faces potential trade tensions with the US, including the possibility of tariffs on Canadian oil exports.

The irony is that Imperial was formed as a coalition of 16 southern Ontario oil refiners that banded together to form a bulwark against Standard Oil. It was eventually taken over by its American rival, the forerunner to Exxon, in 1898.

It was ultimately Imperial that kicked off the Alberta oil boom with the Leduc discovery in 1947.

Imperial, which is 70% owned by today’s ExxonMobil, reported CAD$4.8 billion in net income last year and averaged 460,000 barrels of oil-equivalent production per day in the fourth quarter of 2024.