Oil Barons and Tech Hipsters Share A Dark Side

Oil barons and technology hipsters seem very different. But they share a dark side. The chief executive of U.S. explorer SandRidge Energy and some of his peers jet around at shareholders’ expense, while at Facebook and Google founder-bosses are insulated from owners by super-voting rights. Clubby boards also feature in both sectors. The U.S. oil and gas industry plumbs the depths of weak corporate governance and social responsibility, with 15 companies getting the worst F grade from consultancy GMI Ratings - far more than would be suggested by their weighting in the sample. Headline-grabbing offenders include Chesapeake Energy and SandRidge, whose founder Tom Ward kitted out the business with four corporate jets despite the fact that its wells are mostly within driving distance. Meanwhile James “Jim Bob” Moffett, chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, recently engineered t...