career inspiration from a crawl space

New Senior Vice President Mike Dolan has seen a lot of the world in his 33-year career. And every step of the way, some sage advice that his dad had for him early in life has continued to serve him, his family and fellow employees quite well.

Can crowding into dark crawl spaces in attics and under houses to pull electrical wiring be inspirational? New ExxonMobil Senior Vice President Mike Dolan believes it can.

“My dad was a plant maintenance electrician,” says Dolan. “On weekends while I was in high school, he took on various electrical jobs around our hometown of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and I went along to help. If someone had to crawl under a house to pull wire, that would be me. If someone had to crawl into an attic to pull wire, that would be me.

“I’m not sure how many crawl spaces I managed to squeeze into over four or five years. But by the time I was ready for college, I had learned a great deal about how things work from a mechanical perspective, and I thought about pursuing a career in engineering.”

Dolan initially wanted to become an electrical engineer because of the knowledge he had developed in assisting his dad.

“But that was toward the end of the Vietnam War,” he recalls, “and a lot of electrical engineers in defense-related jobs were being laid off. After I checked with a few people, I was told chemical engineers never get laid off. Even if they were stretching the truth, I didn’t need a lot of convincing.”

An indirect path to Mobil

Dolan graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1975 with a degree in chemical engineering, and accepted a job with the global engineering firm of UOP.

“I gained a lot of experience with technology that happened to be of interest to Mobil. After a five-year ‘delay,’ Mobil hired me in 1980 to work at its Paulsboro, New Jersey, research lab to help advance new processing technology, including the startup of new fluid catalytic-cracking units.”

From Australia to Saudi Arabia

Dolan worked in refining for 13 years in both engineering and management. He cites his two years as a member of the leadership team at the Adelaide Refinery in Australia as probably the most satisfying.

“It was an outstanding opportunity early in my career. I learned how to manage and lead people in a very different, unionized environment and also had to look beyond the refinery itself. As a key contributor to the local economy, the refinery was the ‘big fish in a little pond’ and received a lot of community interest.”

Dolan spent most of the next 15 years in petrochemicals, initially leading the aromatics, olefins and polyethylene businesses before being promoted to vice president and general manager for the Americas for Mobil Chemical. After the merger, he moved to Brussels as ExxonMobil Chemical’s regional director for the Middle East and Africa.

In 2001, after ExxonMobil accepted an invitation to bid on a major natural gas development package in Saudi Arabia, Dolan moved to the capital city of Riyadh as executive vice president of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia.

“It was primarily an upstream venture but also offered new petrochemical-manufacturing opportunities. While I brought my chemical and downstream expertise to the project team, I learned a lot about the upstream. Of course, after September 11, we had much to do in terms of keeping ahead of the changes that were occurring.”

After a brief return to refining in 2003 as deputy to the president of ExxonMobil Refining & Supply, Dolan was named president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company in 2004.

Dad was right

His promotion to the Exxon Mobil Corporation Management Committee as a senior vice president in April 2008 proved a happy surprise.

“Looking back, my career goals were simple. I just wanted to be an engineer, see the world and do the best job I could do. If I had had a career plan, advancing this far would not have seemed to be a reasonable expectation.”

Dolan attributes his successful career partly to having never said “no” to new opportunities.

He also cites Mike Ramage, retired president of ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, and Ray McGowan, retired executive vice president of ExxonMobil Chemical, as excellent management role models.

“They brought a lot of energy to their work and cared deeply about their employees. Both trusted me with tremendous assignments at a fairly young age.”

But there are two other mentors whose influence has been significant from the day he drew his first breath.

“My mom and dad gave their children their love and support and instilled in us the value of hard work. And even when I was crawling under houses back in Attleboro, my dad taught me every day that if you come to work to work, are considerate of those around you and strive to make a contribution wherever you can, then things will go well. He was right.”