Marathon Sinks on CFO Departure

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 13, 4:23AM EST · Published Aug 22, 11:50AM EDT

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Marathon Sinks on CFO Departure — © Thinkstock

Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) watched its shares sink during Monday’s regular trading session after it announced some changes to its upper management. The big move to watch out of the group is the departure of the chief financial officer (CFO). Also keep in mind that all these changes are effective immediately.

J.R. Sult, executive vice president and CFO, has chosen to leave the company for personal reasons following an appropriate transition period. Marathon made sure to say that Sult’s departure was not related to any disagreement with the company regarding financial disclosures, accounting or business matters.

In the meantime, Pat Wagner was appointed interim CFO while a search for a new financial chief is underway. Wagner, Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy, joined Marathon Oil in 2014. He has extensive financial and operational experience, including senior roles at QR Energy LP, Scotia Waterous and Devon Energy.

Marathon also announced that T. Mitch Little has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Operations, and will oversee the Resource Play and Conventional businesses.

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Little is currently a vice president, and Marathon is making this promotion based on his strong leadership capabilities across a variety of large, complex businesses and has successfully taken on multifaceted initiatives across the enterprise.

At the same time, Cathy Krajicek, currently Vice President of Technology and Innovation, has accepted the role of Vice President, Conventional. Bruce McCullough, currently vice president and chief information officer, has accepted the role of Vice President, Technology and Innovation, and retains his role as chief information officer. Lance Robertson, Vice President, Resource Plays, has elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.

Despite lower oil prices, Marathon has performed very well in 2016, with the stock up around 30% to date. However, over the past 52 weeks the stock is relatively flat.

Shares of Marathon Oil were last seen down 6.8% at $15.66 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $18.04 and a 52-week trading range of $6.52 to $20.44.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.