Occidental Petroleum general counsel and CCO to retire

Marcia Backus, senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Occidental Petroleum, intends to retire from the company she joined almost a decade ago.

According to an SEC filing, Backus has announced that she will step down from her role at the end of the year. She will continue as Occidental’s executive adviser for legal and will retire from the company fully on March 1, 2023. The filing states that Backus has agreed to advise Occidental on the transition to a successor until June 30, 2024.

Backus joined Occidental in 2013, having previously been a partner with Vinson & Elkins in Houston, Texas. In that role she was responsible for the law firm’s energy transactions/projects practice group and represented industry and private equity companies in domestic and international corporate matters, M&A, joint ventures, private equity investments, project development and other energy transactions.

During her time with Vinson & Elkins, Backus held leadership positions including on the company-wide management committee and as co-chair of the corporate department and chair of the partnership admissions committee.

Requests for comment from the company and Backus were not returned immediately.