API 2006 Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement

WASHINGTON – Lee R. Raymond, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation, today was awarded the American Petroleum Institute's highest honor, the API Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement. The presentation of the 2006 API Gold Medal was made at API's awards luncheon today. Raymond served nearly 20 years as a member of the API Board of Directors, including two terms as chairman.

As one of American industry's most distinguished and accomplished leaders, Raymond dedicated more than 40 years of his career to shaping and advancing the global oil and natural gas industry, which has raised living standards in the United States and in many nations around the globe. Under his outstanding leadership, Exxon and Mobil completed one of the largest and most successful mergers in American corporate history. During his 12 years as chairman, Exxon Mobil Corporation distinguished itself among the world's best-run publicly traded energy companies, as measured by market capitalization, revenues, profitability and shareholder approval.

A native of Watertown, SD, Raymond graduated in 1960 from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. In 1963, he received a Ph.D. in the same discipline from the University of Minnesota. He joined Exxon that same year as a production research engineer in Tulsa. Over the next 16 years, he held positions of increasing responsibility. In 1979, he became president of Exxon Nuclear Company, Inc. and then two years later moved to New York when he was named executive vice president of Exxon Enterprises. In 1983, Raymond became president and director of Esso Inter-America Inc., with responsibilities for Exxon's operations in the Caribbean and Central and South America. He was named a senior vice president and elected to the board of directors of the corporation in 1984 and then became president of the corporation in 1987. On April 28, 1993, Raymond was named chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Corporation.

Following the merger of Exxon and Mobil on November 30, 1999, Raymond became chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Raymond is vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Enterprise Institute. He is a director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., chairman of its Compensation and Management Development Committee, and a member of its Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Raymond is president of the National Petroleum Council. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the American Society for Engineering Education.

He is a trustee of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a member of the advisory board of Project Shelter Pro-Am, and a member of the board and an honorary trustee of the Business Council for International Understanding, Inc. He is also a member of the Innovations in Medicine Leadership Council of UT Southwestern Medical Center and a trustee of Mayo Clinic.

Raymond is a member of The Business Council; the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations; The American Council on Germany; the Council on Foreign Relations; the Emergency Committee for American Trade; the Singapore-U.S. Business Council; the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board; the Executive Committee of The 21st Century Campaign of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers; the National Academy of Engineering; the Trilateral Commission; the Dallas Citizens Council; and the University of Wisconsin Foundation. He is a partner emeritus of the New York City Partnership.

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List of past recipients of the Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement.

1946	Henry Ford	1981	Dean A. McGee
1947	William M. Burton	1982	George R. Brown
1948	Charles F. Kettering	1983	John E. Swearingen
1949	J. Howard Pew	1984	Jerry McAfee
1950	Walter C. Teagle	1985	H. A. (Dave) True, Jr.
1951	Ernest O. Thompson	1986	Robert O. Anderson
1953	Otto D. Donnell	1987	M. A. Wright
1954	Wallace E. Pratt	1988	Rawleigh Warner, Jr.
1956	J. Frank Drake	1989	Maurice F. Granville
1957	Warren K. Lewis	1990	John F. Bookout, Fred L. Hartley
1958	W. S. S. Rodgers	1991	C. C. Garvin, Jr.
1960	Eugene Holamn	1992	Richard M. Morrow
1965	M. J. Rathbone	1993	George M. Keller
1966	A.     C. Rubel	1994	Collis P. Chandler, Jr.
1967	A.     Jacobsen	1995	C. J. (Pete) Silas
1968	R. Swin Follis	1996	Constantine S. Nicandros
1969	Hugo A. Anderson, J. Ed Warren	1997	Allen E. Murray
		1998	Richard J. Stegemeier
1971	Michael L. Haider	1999	Robert L. Parker, Sr.
1972	Leonard F. McCollum	2000	Kenneth T. Derr
1973	Albert L. Nickeron	2001	H. Leighton Steward
1974	Jake L. Hamon	2002	Michel T. Halbouty
1975	Robert G. Dunlop	2003	Roy M. Huffington
1977	James C. Donnell, II	2004	No Awardee
1979	Frank N. Ikard	2005	James W. Kinnear
1980	Charles E. Spahr	2006	Lee R. Raymond

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