Valero Energy announced Tuesday that Joe Gorder, the company’s chief executive officer and chairman of the board, will retire at the end of June.
Gorder has led the San Antonio-based petroleum refiner and producer of renewable fuels since 2014.
Valero president and Chief Operating Officer Lane Riggs will succeed Gorder, according to a statement released by the company. Gorder will remain with Valero as executive chairman of the board starting June 30.
“Joe’s strong and principled leadership steered a repositioning of Valero’s strategy that has been steadfastly executed for nearly a decade,” stated Robert Profusek, lead independent director of Valero.
“With the strong foundation for continued success that Joe established in place along with a strong succession development plan being executed, the board unanimously agrees that now is the time to transition to Lane as CEO.”
In a statement released by the company, Gorder thanked Valero employees, stockholders and others, and said Riggs has been a key member of Valero’s executive team who has long played a role in company strategy.
“Our succession plan has been in place for some time and has progressed as planned with the complete involvement and support of the board,” he said.
In various leadership roles at Valero since 1989, Riggs has managed the company’s refining operations, crude and feedstock supply, and planning and economics, and also served on the board of Valero Energy Partners GP LLC, the general partner of Valero Energy Partners LP, from 2014 to 2019.
“The tenets of Valero’s strategy — pursuing excellence in operations, deploying capital with an uncompromising focus on returns, and honoring our commitment to stockholders — that have been in place for nearly a decade under Joe’s leadership will remain a constant and continue to position us well for the future,” Riggs stated.
Founded by Bill Greehey in 1980, Valero today is a $176 billion company (in revenue) and owns 15 petroleum refineries in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom producing about 3.2 million barrels of oil a day.
Gorder succeeded Bill Klesse as CEO in 2005. Longtime Valero executive Klesse was named to the position when Greehey retired as CEO to lead Valero spinoff, NuStar Energy.
Greehey retired from NuStar in October 2022 and stepped down shortly afterward as chairman of the board of Haven for Hope, the nonprofit homeless service center he helped to establish in 2006.
NuStar and Valero are two of San Antonio’s largest publicly traded firms. Valero Energy’s stock price was trading at $108.40 as of 4:50 p.m. CT on May 9.
As CEO and board chairman of Valero, Gorder’s annual compensation package exceeded $28 million, according to stocks data analysis website Wallmine.
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