Vicki Hollub, the first woman to lead a major American oil company
Her arrival at the leadership of Occidental in 2016 broke a historic barrier in one of the industries with the lowest female presence at the top.
Vicki Hollub became part of the history of the energy sector when, in April 2016, she became president and chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum and became the first woman to lead a major oil company in the United States. The appointment came after a rise of more than three decades within the company itself and at a difficult moment for the industry, marked by the fall in crude oil prices.
An appointment that broke a ceiling in the sector
Hollub did not reach the leadership from outside or through a traditional corporate path. She moved through technical and operational positions for decades, from wellsite work to the leadership of the Permian basin, before the board chose her for the top position. That internal trajectory gave her an operational legitimacy rarely found among those who reach the top of major oil companies.
Her access to leadership coincided with an adverse scenario. The executive took office amid a retreat in oil prices and chose to reduce production costs without resorting to staff layoffs, a decision that became a distinctive feature of her way of managing during the crisis.
Recognitions that accompanied her career
The impact of her figure was reflected year after year in leadership rankings. Fortune included her in its list of the most powerful women in business from her first year as chief executive officer, when she ranked 32nd, and placed her 38th in 2023. That same year, Forbes ranked her 50th in its classification of the world’s most powerful women.
Those recognitions were joined by distinctions from the technical field, where female presence is even scarcer. In 2024, she was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, and in 2025 she received the WPC Energy Dewhurst Award, a distinction that recognizes outstanding contributions to the energy industry and that had her as the first woman to obtain it.
Her message to women professionals in the industry
Hollub used her public exposure to encourage the incorporation of more women into a traditionally male sector. At an oil industry forum, she invited women professionals in the field to be “innovative” and “authentic” in order to take the activity to a higher stage of development, an idea she repeated in different settings.
Her profile also extended beyond oil operations. She has served on the board of Lockheed Martin since 2018 and participated in academic and sector councils, including Khalifa University, in Abu Dhabi, and the American Petroleum Institute. That presence in decision-making spaces broadened the reach of a case that, within the sector, is often cited as a reference for women’s access to leadership.
What her time at the top leaves behind
After almost a decade at the head of Occidental, Hollub left the executive leadership in 2026, although she will retain her place on the company’s board. Her succession fell to a career executive within the firm, which ensures continuity for the definitions made during her management. The precedent she opened in 2016 remains, a decade later, a point of reference on women’s access to the top of the energy industry.