Exxon CEO Is Dealt Stinging Setback at Hands of New Activist (2)

Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods was dealt a stunning defeat by shareholders when a tiny activist investment firm snagged at least two board seats and promised to push the crude driller to diversify beyond oil and fight climate change.

For Woods, who had aggressively opposed the insurgents, it was just the latest setback in a rocky 4 1/2-year tenure that has seen what was once the world’s most-valuable company shed more than $125 billion in market value.

Darren Woods

Photographer: Wei Leng Tay/Bloomberg

The vote was unprecedented in the rarefied world of Big Oil and underscores how vulnerable the industry has suddenly become as ...