Darren Woods, CEO of the free world’s biggest oil company, is moving himself and his senior team out of their wood-panelled hideaway in parkland outside Dallas to more modern corporate offices closer to the rest of the business in Houston. The WSJ has excellent detail on the ultra-exclusive HQ that has housed Exxon’s top brass and their executive assistants (only) for the past 25 years. It has African hardwood staircases, French limestone lobby, Madagascan granite columns and a Welsh slate roof and in its isolation from the real world recalls nothing so much as Beijing’s Forbidden City. But perhaps contemplation free from distraction is important for the bottom line. Exxon made record profits of $55.7 billion last year, or $6.74 million per hour.
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