Dr. Ray R. Irani has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum Corporation since 1990, and assumed the additional position of President in 2005. He has been a director of the company since July 1984. He was President and Chief Operating Officer of Occidental from September 1984 to December 1990, and before that was an Executive Vice President of the Corporation.

Dr. Irani joined the Occidental organization in June 1983 as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Chemical Corporation, an Occidental Petroleum Corporation subsidiary. He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd. from 1987 to 1999.

Prior to joining Occidental, Dr. Irani served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Olin Corporation and as a member of that firm's Board of Directors.

After starting his career as a research scientist, Dr. Irani played a key role in creating and developing commercially viable products and processes at Monsanto Company and Diamond Shamrock Corporation before joining Olin's Chemicals Group in March 1973 as Vice President of Research and Development. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of the Group in August 1974 and in December was elected a Corporate Vice President of Olin. He was appointed Executive Vice President of the Chemicals Group in March 1976; the Group's Chief Operating Officer in May 1977; President of the Group in October 1978; President of Olin Corporation and a member of the Board of Directors in September 1980; and Chief Operating Officer in October 1981. By 1963, he was Senior Research Group Leader at Monsanto. He joined Diamond Shamrock in 1967 as Associate Director for New Products and Processes and became that company's Director of Research two years later.

Dr. Irani was born on January 15, 1935, in Beirut, Lebanon. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the American University of Beirut in 1953 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California in 1957.

Dr. Irani holds 50 U.S. patents and more than 100 foreign patents, is the author of the book Particle Size, and has published more than 50 technical papers.

Dr. Irani is a director of the American Petroleum Institute, KB Home and The TCW Group, Inc. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemists, Inc., the California Business Roundtable, The Conference Board, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Committee on United States-China Relations, the National Petroleum Council, Sigma Xi - The Scientific Research Society, and the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council. He is a Trustee of the University of Southern California, and is Chairman of USC's Board Personnel Committee. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of the American University of Beirut; a member of the Board of Governors of Town Hall Los Angeles and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council; and serves on the Advisory Board of RAND's Center for Middle East Public Policy. In 1994, Dr. Irani was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Export Council, the premiere national advisory committee on internationa l trade, and served on the Council as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, Japan, and newly independent states until 2001. From 2002 to 2006, Dr. Irani served on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. He also served on the Energy Advisory Board's Task Force on the Future of Science Programs.

Dr. Irani was the recipient of the American Institute of Chemists' 1983 Honorary Fellow Award, Polytechnic University's 1988 Creative Technology Award, and the Chemical Marketing Research Association's 1990 Man of the Year Award. In 1992, he received the CEO of the Year Bronze Award from Financial World magazine and the Americanism Award from the Boy Scouts of America. In 1993, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award and the City of Hope's Humanitarian of the Year Award, as well as, the Silver Chief Executive Award from the Wall Street Transcript in both 1993 and 1995 for outstanding achievement in the domestic integrated oil industry. He also received the University of Southern California's 1997 Asa V. Call Achievement Award and the Volunteers of America's 1998 Marco Polo Award. In May 2003, Dr. Irani was presented with the American Task Force for Lebanon's Lifetime Achievement Award. In November 2003, Dr. Irani was the recipient of the first STOP CANCER Humanitarian Award.