Patricia Ann Woertz (born March 17, 1953) is a retired American business executive. She formerly served as Chair and CEO of Archer Daniels Midland. Previously, she was Executive Vice President of Chevron Corporation, where she spent 29 years and served as Executive Vice President of Global Downstream. Since 2014, she has been ranked as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.
She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1953 and studied accounting at Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 1974. She first worked for Ernst & Young in Pittsburgh, then moved to Gulf Oil, a client of Ernst & Young. She spent a brief time in Vancouver, British Columbia, before becoming President of Chevron International and ultimately Executive Vice President of Global Operations at Chevron. At ADM, she was expected to focus on ethanol and biofuels.
As CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, in 2010 she was ranked as the third most powerful woman by Fortune magazine. In 2009, ranked 93rd, Woertz was the highest-ranking woman on the list of Fortune 500 company CEOs. Also in 2009, Forbes ranked Woertz 26th among the most powerful women in the world. Formerly Executive Vice President of Chevron Corporation, Woertz left to pursue the opportunity to become a CEO. In an interview with Fortune, she described herself as an outsider at ADM: “I’m from outside the company, outside the industry, outside the family, outside the gender expectations.”
While serving as CEO of Archer Daniels Midland in 2009, Patricia A. Woertz earned a total compensation of $14,689,022, which included a base salary of $1,300,000, a cash bonus of $2,040,384, stock awards worth $4,919,563, stock options worth $6,356,267, and other compensation totaling $72,807.
She was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Business Council during 2011 and 2012.
The year 2014 was the best year in ADM’s history. Accordingly, in 2014, Forbes ranked Woertz as the 85th most powerful woman in the world. Woertz received total compensation of $29.8 million in 2014, including a $9.3 million cash bonus and $7.55 million in stock grants.
On November 5, 2014, ADM announced that as of January 1, 2015, Juan Luciano would become the new CEO of the company.