OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2014. Stephen D. Pryor, president, ExxonMobil Chemical Company and vice president of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), has elected to retire on January 1, 2015, after more than 44 years of service.

It is anticipated that the board of directors of Exxon Mobil Corporation will appoint Neil A. Chapman as president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company and elect him a vice president of the corporation, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Chapman is currently senior vice president, Polymers, ExxonMobil Chemical Company.

Pryor, 64, joined Mobil Corporation in 1971 and has held a number of financial and managerial positions in the United States, Cyprus, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. In 1993, he was appointed vice president, Mobil Chemical Company and general manager, Plastics Division.

In 1996, he became president, Mobil Asia Pacific and in 1998, executive vice president responsible for Mobil’s international downstream business. Following the merger between Exxon and Mobil, he was appointed president of ExxonMobil Lubricants & Specialties Company, and in 2002 became executive vice president, ExxonMobil Chemical Company. He was appointed president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company in 2004 and president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company in 2008.

Pryor was born in New York, NY. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University.

Chapman, 52, joined Esso Chemical in 1984 at the Esso refinery in Fawley, UK. He advanced through a series of engineering, operations, planning and marketing roles in various chemicals affiliates in the United Kingdom, Belgium, United States and Hong Kong.

After the merger, Chapman was Chemicals sales manager in Asia Pacific and project executive of the Fujian Integrated Refining and Ethylene Joint Venture Project in China. In 2002 he joined the Fuels Marketing division as head of ExxonMobil Aviation International Ltd. in the United Kingdom before becoming vice president, Industrial and Wholesale Fuels based in the United States.

Chapman became vice president, Global Polyethylene Business Unit of ExxonMobil Chemical Company in 2005 and was appointed executive assistant to the chairman of Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2006. He became president of ExxonMobil Global Services Company in 2007 and was appointed to his current role in 2011.

Chapman was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Surrey University, England.