A career company man, Raymond has been with Exxon for forty years including ten years at the helm. However, age catches us all one day and it is now believed that Raymond has hit the magical 65 (or even 66 no-one is really sure), the age at which the company normally expects staff to retire.
One of his greatest successes includes the $US81 billion acquisition of Mobil in 1999, which at the time was the world's largest industrial merger and created a oil titan that pumps more oil than Kuwait.
The list of replacements has been narrowed to two other career company men in senior vice president, exploration and production, Rex Tillerson and senior vice president, refining and chemicals, Ed Galante.
Yet as the company eyes expansion into Russia or the Middle East some analysts feel that a change at the top may have to wait until after the experienced campaigner Raymond leads Exxon Mobil into its next phase.
