A LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE
Immediately after earning his MBA, John S. Watson, ’80, joined Chevron as a financial analyst—an analyst educated in the University of Chicago’s business school and passionate about its approach to economics and problem solving.
The geopolitical nature and macroeconomic implications of the oil industry drew him to the energy business and Chevron. The unique company culture resonated with his local roots. Northern California born and raised, Watson has embraced the American energy giant as a perfect fit for his 37-year career.
“I was raised understanding that integrity and those personal characteristics that make up your reputation are very important,” Watson says. “My parents always talked to me about how you only have one reputation. So, it was wonderful to join Chevron and find those same characteristics. It’s been very much the compatibility of values, as expressed in the Chevron Way, that have kept me around for 37 years.”
OPPORTUNITY WITHIN OPPORTUNITY
Throughout his career, Watson has built his reputation at Chevron by taking on a variety of challenges and continually evolving as a leader in the multinational corporation. In true Booth fashion, he has been driven by an ongoing desire to learn by asking questions, listening, and collaborating with colleagues across the company.
“Chevron afforded me the opportunity to do many different things over time—I’ve had more than 15 different jobs,” Watson says. “The breadth of my education at Chicago and the diversity of on-the-job experience enabled me to wind up in the job I’m in today.”
Earlier in his career with the company, Watson held financial, analytical, and supervisory positions. In the late 1990s he served as president of Chevron’s refining and marketing company in Canada, and was elected vice president of the corporation, with responsibility for strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions.
Continuing his rise in the corporation, in 2000 he led the company’s integration effort following the Chevron-Texaco merger, and then became the corporation’s CFO. In 2005, Watson was elected president of Chevron’s international exploration and production company. Then, in 2008, he was elected executive vice president for strategy and development. Watson served as vice chairman of the board before being elected chairman and CEO in 2010.
THE CONTINUUM OF INFLUENCE
Beyond Chevron Watson lends his efforts and expertise to a variety of groups. He currently serves on the board of directors and the executive committee of the American Petroleum Institute and is a member of the National Petroleum Council, the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, the American Society of Corporate Executives, and the University of California Davis Chancellor’s Board of Advisors. He’s also passionate about education.
“Chevron does a great deal around STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math,” Watson says. “As we look to hire young people to take positions in our company, there’s just an increasing shortfall, particularly among underrepresented minorities in some of the technical disciplines. We support many programs to foster more opportunity and education for youth in those fields.”
When it comes to his MBA education, Watson believes that his experience at the University of Chicago has played a crucial role in shaping his thinking, particularly the core belief in free markets championed by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman.
“I’m very grateful to the university,” Watson says. “It taught me a way to think, and I didn’t really realize it until my later years that the way I would dissect problems and take on issues—including the public position of our company in many areas—is really based on some of the thinking skills that I developed at the University of Chicago. I truly believe that.”
John Watson:
My parents always talked to me about, "You only have one reputation." And so it's been wonderful to join Chevron and find those same characteristics here.
John Watson:
There were two reasons why I went to the University of Chicago. The first, of course, was Milton Friedman. This was the heyday of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. He had just retired by the time I arrived. The other reason, of course, was the way the University of Chicago approached education. It very much approached problem-solving by teaching you the disciplines. And so you'd learn accounting, you'd learn statistics, you'd learn behavioral science, and you would be responsible for integrating those into solving problems. And that framework that Chicago gave me enabled me to take uncertain facts, uncertain times, and meld them together to try to make a business decision that works for the company.
Pat Yarrington:
I think John is a very effective communicator and he is a very effective ambassador for the company, and frankly, for the industry at large. He has a phenomenal capability to take a very complex topic and boil it down into language that everybody can understand, put forward his data points, make a compelling argument.
John Watson:
In 1980 was around the time of the Iranian Revolution. And so oil was topical, as it is today. And I got very interested in the oil industry for its geopolitics, for the macroeconomic implications of the industry, the technology that's involved. It just seemed like it was a broad and critical industry for the world, and I got very interested. And so I read a lot and then interviewed broadly in the oil and gas business and elsewhere at that time, and wound up joining Chevron.
Mike Wirth:
Well, I think John marries up his intellect, his belief in free enterprise and in markets and in technology and competition with a humanity that makes him approachable. When John challenges the people that work for him, it's never personal. It's always business. And so as he pushes people to be better, to learn, to grow, to push themselves, it's always coming from a place where he's looking to make the company stronger and he's looking to make you stronger as well.
John Watson:
So what Chevron has afforded me is the opportunity to do many different things over time. So I started in finance, but I've done many other things. And just as I was getting anxious, if I wanted to do something different, I would be moved on to something that was very different than what I had been doing. It was all in the same industry, but it allowed me to branch out and do different things. I never would've thought I would wind up in the job that I'm in, and it's because I was tested in those different areas.
Joe Laymon:
The commitment to the development of our employees that is far superior than most other leaders. He just doesn't want you to come here and be content with just doing a job. He wants you to come here being content and doing a better job and doing something better for yourself and your family.
John Watson:
I think I was conditioned to ask questions and be analytical in my thinking at the University of Chicago. As time went by, I had to do it to survive in Chevron because it's such a big company, such a complex business, and you can't know everything. But there is somebody that knows everything inside the company. So I learned as time went on, instead of being the answer man all the time, to try to be the one that's eliciting information from people and extracting the right information and really listening and hearing what they say so you understand what they're contributing.
John Watson:
It's very fashionable today to talk about inclusiveness. And the true meaning of that is making sure that everyone can contribute to their fullest. And if you're going to allow people to contribute to their fullest, you better be good at letting them and asking the questions so they can do it, particularly if you're in a job like mine.
John Watson:
I'm currently very interested in education and particularly primary education. Chevron does a great deal around STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. As we look to hire young people to take positions in our company, there's just an increasing shortfall, particularly amongst underrepresented minorities in some of the technical disciplines. So at our company, and personally, we work very hard to try to foster more involvement for youth in those fields so that we have a pool of people to draw from.
John Watson:
I'm very grateful to the university. It taught me a way to think. And I didn't really realize it until my later years that the way I would dissect problems, the way I would take on issues, including the public position of our company in many areas, is really based on some of the thinking skills that I developed at the University of Chicago. And I truly believe that.
