Warm and affable Lee R. Raymond is the chairman and Chief Executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation. Exxon Mobil is a worldwide leader in the field of petroleum and petrochemicals business and is present in over 200 countries. Created by the combination of two high-profile companies, Exxon and Mobil, the company is an industry leader in almost every sector of the energy and petrochemical business. Exxon Mobil supplies a large number of distributors under the brands of Esso, Mobil and Exxon. Exxon Mobil Corporation is the parent company of the Esso, Mobil and ExxonMobil companies that operate in the United Kingdom. ExxonMobil operates within an industry that is dynamic, strategically important and exciting, striving towards operational excellence with a proficient workforce, strong financial resources and cutting edge technology. The organization structure is shaped on the model of global businesses and is designed to allow ExxonMobil to compete most effectively in the ever-changing and challenging worldwide industry. For more than a century, their clientele in the United States have been relying on Exxon branded fuels, services and lubricants for their personal and business requirements. Traded around the continents, Mobil is known for its functioning and novelty. Mobil is recognized for its advanced technology in fuels, lubricants and services. Their customers, both global and local, range from airlines to the individuals visiting their service stations worldwide. Statistics have revealed that in the UK they fuel one in every six vehicles. With the country's largest refinery and underground pipeline distribution network, they have an interest in some 90 producing offshore fields, producing over 12 percent of the UK's total oil production and around 15 percent of UKs total gas production. Mr. Raymond was the chairman on Exxon Corporation prior to the merger of Exxon and Mobil on November 30, 1999. A native of Watertown, South Dakota, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. In 1963 he received a PhD in the same from the University of Minnesota. He made his debut in Exxon the same year as a production research engineer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The next 16 years saw him holding several positions of responsibility with Exxon Company, U.S.A.; Creole Petroleum Corporation, which was Exxon's operating affiliate in Venezuela before those facilities were nationalized; the former Exxon International Company, which was responsible for Exxon's international supply and transportation of petroleum products and crude oil; and Lago Oil & Transport Company, Limited, the Exxon affiliate in Aruba. In 1979, he became the President of Exxon Nuclear Company Inc. and moved to New York in 1981, when he was named executive vice president of Exxon Enterprises. In 1983, Mr. Raymond was named president and director of Esso Inter-America Inc. He was responsible for Exxon's operations in the Caribbean, Central and South America. A year later, Mr. Raymond was named a senior vice president and was elected to the board of directors of the corporation. in 1993, he was named chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Corporation, a post he has continued to hold till date. Mr. Raymond is also vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Enterprise Institute and a director of the United Negro College Fund. He is a director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., chairman of its Governance Committee, and a member of its Compensation and Management Development Committee. He is chairman of the board, a director and a member of the Executive Committee and Policy Committee of the American Petroleum Institute. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the American Society for Engineering Education. In addition, 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. He is a member of a number of other commissions and councils, including The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, 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 National Petroleum Council and its Nominating Committee and Committee on Natural Gas; the Trilateral Commission; the Dallas Citizens Council; and the University of Wisconsin Foundation. He is a partner emeritus of the New York City Partnership. Far from being satisfied with its petroleum business, Exxon Mobil has spread its areas of activities in the gas sector, where, along with petrol, it manages large scale exploration, drilling, production and transport operations. Along with this, it produces and markets petrochemical by-products such as ethylene, olefins, polyolefins and paraxylene. With its continual international growth strategy which targets countries that are likely to have a wealth of fossil deposits, under Mr. Raymond's conduction Exxon is absolutely set on maintaining its position as world leader.