Valero 2005 Annual Report Download - page 7

VA L E R O E N E R G Y C O R P O R AT I O N 5
more for the communities in which they live
and more for the shareholders. Never was this
more evident than during the back-to-back
hurricanes that we experienced in 2005.
These two storms damaged our refineries in
St. Charles, Louisiana and Port Arthur, Texas,
and threatened five of our other plants along
the Gulf Coast. We vowed to do whatever was
necessary to help our employees and communi-
ties recover.
In response to the company’s outpouring
of support, our St. Charles and Port Arthur
employees worked around the clock and
restarted our refineries in record time during
a time of record refining margins. They
proved yet again that our unique caring and
sharing culture has tangible benefits for our
shareholders.
I served as CEO of Valero and its predeces-
sor for almost 32 years, but I have to say the
response of Valero and our employees during
hurricanes Katrina and Rita this past year was
one of my proudest moments. The wife of
one of our St. Charles employees may have
summed it up best when she wrote to the local
newspaper and said she was proud to be associ-
ated with Valero because we did what FEMA
could not do to assist our employees and the
community in post-hurricane relief efforts.
As you may know, 2005 was also the year I
stepped down as CEO of Valero. It was a very
Chairman of the Board
difficult decision for me because I really do love
the Valero employees like family.
But, because the Valero spirit has never been
stronger and the company has never been more
successful, I feel it’s a good time for me to transi-
tion out of my role as CEO and focus on my
position as Chairman. This will give me the
opportunity to continue to be involved in the
strategic direction of Valero as well as employee,
civic and governmental initiatives. And, it will
also give me a little more free time to spend with
my family and to work on some important phil-
anthropic initiatives.
During my tenure as CEO, the company has
achieved record growth and success, but my
proudest achievement has been Valero’s unique
caring and sharing culture. As I always tell our
employees, we won’t be remembered for how
many refineries we acquired or how much share-
holder value we created, however we will be
remembered for the difference we’ve made in the
lives of those who are less fortunate.
As a result of our unique culture, we reached No. 3
– our highest ranking yet – on FORTUNE’s
2006 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work
For”; we earned the Spirit of America award,
United Way’s top national honor, twice; and we
were ranked the third best-performing stock in
2005 by Forbes. It really says a lot about Valero
that we would receive top honors for being a
great employer, a generous corporate citizen and
a top-performing stock. And, it shows that you
really can take care of all stakeholders!
As Chairman, my highest priority will be to pre-
serve our unique culture because it has been the
cornerstone of all our success during the past 25
years and will be the key to our success in the
future.
We are fortunate to have one of the best leader-
ship teams around, and I am happy that Bill
Klesse has assumed the position of CEO and
Vice Chairman of the Board.
As Executive Vice President and COO, Bill did a
great job of overseeing our refining and commer-
cial operations. With 37 years of industry expe-
rience, he has held leadership positions in many
different areas in the refining and marketing
business. I worked closely with Bill for several
years and became confident in his business judg-
ment as well as his commitment to Valero.
I look forward to working with Bill in his new
role as we continue Valero’s tremendous growth
and success in the coming years.
With such a great company and such great
employees, I have no doubt that the best is yet
to come!
[Left] Valero signs
started popping up
across the U.S. as
part of the roll-out of
the Valero brand.
[Below] After
Hurricane Katrina,
Valero executives
traveled to the
company’s St.
Charles refinery
to offer support to
employees.