Irani was born in Lebanon and received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the American University of Beirut in 1953. He moved in the same year to Los Angeles, California, and at age 18 began graduate studies in physical chemistry, receiving his PhD from the University of Southern California in 1957. After graduating, he worked as a researcher for the Monsanto Company until 1967, when he joined the Shamrock Corporation. Prior to joining Occidental, he was president and Chief Operating Officer of Olin Corporation, a chemicals and metals company. He was brought to Occidental in 1983 to help its struggling chemicals division, and soon was promoted to president, replacing a string of presidents fired by Hammer. By 1988, the media reported Irani and his team were running the day-to-day operations of Occidental on behalf of the then 90 year old Hammer.
Irani made news in 2007, when it was revealed that his total compensation for the 2006 year topped $450 million (his base salary was $1.3 million). Occidental justified the compensation by pointing to stock price, which had risen from $9 when Irani succeeded Hammer to $48.60 a share at the end of 2006, as well as the company's market capitalization, which grew from $32.1 billion at the end of 2005 to $42.5 billion at the end of 2006.
Irani is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Irani is currently a Trustee of USC and Vice Chairman of the Board of American University of Beirut. USC named its primary life sciences building as Ray R. Irani Hall on February 9, 2007. He is married to Ghada Irani.
References
External links
- Occidental Petroleum biography
- Biography from Businessweek.com.
- References for Business: Ray R. Irani
- House of Lebanon’s Ray R. Irani ‘Pride of Heritage’ Award
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Last updated on Tuesday May 06, 2008 at 11:01:21 PDT (GMT -0700)
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