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Former Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said Friday he is no longer interested in taking a seat on Exxon Mobil’s (NYSE:XOM) board, even after the Federal Trade Commission reversed its 2024 decision prohibiting him from from joining the board.
Sheffield welcomed the decision to vacate the agency’s prior order, which he said was based on an “utterly unfounded smear campaign,” but he then lashed out at Exxon (XOM), saying he is “no longer interested” in joining its board “because of actions they have taken in this matter… Exxon signed a rushed, baseless and illegal order barring me and other Pioneer employees from taking an Exxon board seat. In doing so, they effectively broke the commitment they made to me in their merger agreement with Pioneer.”
The FTC, chaired at the time of the initial Pioneer-Exxon decision by Lina Khan, appointed by President Biden, voted 3-2 that the merger could proceed only if Sheffield held no position, including in an advisory capacity, in the merged company and no other Pioneer employee held an Exxon (XOM) board seat for at least five years.
Khan alleged Sheffield had asked OPEC members to withdraw oil from the market to improve prices; Sheffield has a lawsuit outstanding against Khan individually in federal court over the matter.