Aubrey McClendon No Longer Chairman of Fracking Giant Chesapeake
Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images
Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon has come under fire for using his company's wells to finance over a billion dollars in personal loans.
After several unusual personal loans came to light, the CEO and chairman of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest players in the world of fracking for natural gas, is now just CEO, according to the company.
In a program called the “Founder Well Participation Program,” Aubrey McClendon was allowed to purchase an interest in each well the company owned, up to 2.5 percent. McClendon then went and borrowed against those future potential profits, which totaled more than a billion dollars of loans.
In a statement, Chesapeake says that McClendon and the company have agreed on a date for early termination of the investment program. That will happen “on June 30, 2014, 18 months before the end of its current term on December 31, 2015. Mr. McClendon will receive no compensation of any kind in connection with the early termination of the FWPP,” according to the company.
Bloomberg says that according to an emailed statement from Chesapeake, “McClendon will not be relinquishing any of the well stakes he already holds.” The company says that in McClendon’s place they’ll look for “an independent, Non-Executive Chairman in the near future.”
The Wall Street Journal’s energy reporter Russell Gold tweeted a reaction that is likely felt by many: “Feels like an era is ending.” The company’s stocks are up nearly ten percent on the news, however.
