Colleen Cervantes will become president of Chevron Lubricants effective July 1, following the June 30 retirement of Danny Roden, the company announced. In addition, Cary Knuth will become general manager, base oils, effective June 1, succeeding Patti Leigh, who will be general manager for planning and optimization.
Cervantes is currently Chevrons vice president of products supply and trading. She joined Chevron in 1983 as a project engineer in retail marketing. She has held positions in marketing, lubricants, and trading, as well as a variety of leadership positions in the United States, Philippines and Singapore. Prior to her current assignment, she was vice president of global marketing for Asia Pacific.
The base oil organization has global responsibility, including production, procurement, manufacturing, technology support and sales of base oils.
Chevrons Richmond, Calif., base oil plant has about 20,000 barrels per day of API Group II capacity. The companys $1.4 billion, 25,000 barrels per day Group II base oil plant project in Pascagoula, Miss., is scheduled for startup in the fourth quarter of 2013. GS Caltex, a 50-50 joint venture of Chevron and GS Holdings, has a base oil plant in Yeosu, South Korea, with 23,000 b/d of Group II and 3,000 b/d of Group III capacity.
Knuth is currently general manager, marketing sales and services, for Chevrons Americas fuels business, according to a statement provided to Lube Report. He was responsible for global service centers, as well as all global card marketing activities. He also managed the product line portfolio, the three brands (Chevron, Texaco and Caltex) and all retail marketing and commercial and industrial sales programs. Prior to that, he served as general manager of gasoline marketing and retail sales at more than 3,000 Chevron and Texaco branded stations in nine western continental states, Hawaii and western Canada.
In her new position, Leigh will have global responsibility for value chain optimization and development of strategies for critical projects within base oil and Chevrons finished lubricants business.
Leigh became general manager of Chevron global base oils in May 2010. In 1990, she joined Chevron as a petroleum engineer. She later held positions in shipping, supply and trading, refinery operations and strategic planning.