Lynn Elsenhans is the first woman to lead a major oil company as CEO of Sunoco. This Forbes magazine Most Powerful Woman earns approximately USD 4.88 million per year. A Rice University graduate with a BA in Applied Science, Elsenhans also attended Harvard Business School for her MBA. She joined Royal Dutch Shell in 1980, where she attained national and international experience in a variety of manufacturing, marketing and planning assignments in the company’s downstream business. By 1999, Shell’s board of directors appointed Elsenhans as the company’s president and CEO of Shell Oil Products East, based in Singapore. She became president of Shell Oil Co. and president and CEO of Shell Oil Product US four years later.
After 28 years with the company, she was given the option to move to Shell’s European headquarters, retire, or look for a position at a domestic-based oil company. She chose to accept the position as CEO and president of Sunoco in August 2008. At that time, Sunoco’s success had taken a downturn as a result of the 2008 financial crisis and Elsenhans was tasked with turning the company around as soon as she took office. Under her supervision, Sunoco sold or closed three of its five refineries. In April 2010, the company also sold its Sunoco Chemicals company, comprised of its polypropylene business; this was a necessary move according to Elsenhans as the sale would realign Sunoco’s portfolio of assets and provide capital. She then put Sunoco’s coking coal business up for sale and bought 25 retail locations in New York in December 2010.
By December 2010, Sunoco stock had gained 53% and its revenue jumped from USD 327 million in 2008 to USD 1.13 billion as a result of Elsenhans’ cost-cutting strategy. Most recently, the company has announced that it plans to exit its refining business and has begun a process to sell its refineries in Philadelphia and Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. In addition to Elsenhans’ duties at Sunoco, she also serves on the board of trustees for Rice University and on the council of overseers for the Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice.
