Thursday, February 23, 2023
MERIDIAN SOURCE
Cenovus Energy names next leader GEOFF LEE WRITER
.................................. Cenovus Energy will be under new leadership at the end of April with the rollout of an executive succession plan. Jonathan McKenzie, the current executive vice-president and chief operating officer, will take over the role of president and chief executive officer from Alex Pourbaix, who will shift to the role of executive chair. The change in positions will take effect following Cenovus’ annual general meeting on April 26. Pourbaix announced the plan along with the reporting of the company’s 2022 year-end and fourth-quarter results during a conference call on Feb. 16. “This is something that I’ve been working with the board on for quite some time, ensuring a robust plan for executive succession, including developing strong internal candidates (and it) has been a key focus of mine and the rest of the Cenovus board,” said Pourbaix who has led the company since 2017.
He says his shift to the executive chair is due to spending an increasing amount of time on external issues, including partnering with governments to help Canada meet its climate goals while advocating for the industry. Specifically, he says he has been consumed by the industry’s Pathways Alliance project to capture and store carbon emissions along with Cenovus’ GHG reduction plan. “I am a very meaningful part of Pathways discussions with the various levels of government in this country about that,” said Pourbaix during question period. “And I’ve actually been very, very lucky to have a leadership team like I have that they’ve been able to pick up the slack while I spend an increasing amount of time on that issue.” McKenzie noted he doesn’t envision any major shift in the company’s direction when he becomes the top executive. He to ld a c alle r he and Pourbaix have worked very
closely together over the last five years. “What I’ve really focused on is running the day-today of the company, where Alex has been more overly focused, particularly over the last period of time, with this involvement in Pathways,” said McKenzie. He says they have their fingerprints all over the corporate strategy supported by the full leadership team with not much change expected. “I think it’s – is going to be very similar to what you’ve seen before as we kind of continue on the trajectory that we’ve been on for the last five years,” said McKenzie. McKenzie was a former chief financial officer for Husky Energy who joined Cenovus in 2018 and was integral in the strategic merger of the two companies in a deal that closed on Jan. 1, 2021. Pourbaix is just past the halfway of his five to sevenyear-old leadership term, but he thinks McKenzie has earned the right to have a shot at leading Cenovus before he times out.
11
File Photo “I don’t think it would be fair to the shareholders because I think they’re all going to be great beneficiaries of his leadership over the coming years,” said Pourbaix.
“So at the end of the day, I think what’s best for the company and what’s best for the shareholders needs to take a little bit of precedence over what might be best for me.”