Business

Positive Energy, With Chevron’s Mike Wirth

In this Milken Institute podcast, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth talks about the company's mission, culture, and how it is adapting to the current COVID-19 pandemic and downturn.

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“It can feel like the world is a colder and riskier place, [but] we've been through these things before, and we generally know that society comes through. We learn lessons. We become stronger over time and create opportunities for personal growth and societal learning that can continue to make the world a better place.”

Chevron has been weathering the vicissitudes of cultural and industrial shifts around the world since it was founded 141 years ago to provide a substitute for whale oil used in lamp lighting. Today, Chevron’s more than 48,000 employees around the world have emerged stronger than ever from a market that drove oil prices to less than zero, as well as a domestic landscape roiled by a resurgent pandemic and social upheaval.

“One of the things I'm really proud of is the heart that our people have,” he tells Mike. “Our employees have donated money from their own pockets....The stories on our internal social media site, where employees share what they've done are incredibly heartwarming....We empower people, we encourage people and they move to action based on what the local needs are very rapidly.”

The podcast transcript can be downloaded from the Mileken Institute website.