John Whelan was appointed president of Imperial Oil Limited, effective April 1, 2025. He was appointed chairman, president and CEO on May 8, 2025.

Mr. Whelan started his career with ExxonMobil in 1988 in Drayton Valley, Alberta as an operations engineer and has held a wide variety of engineering, project, operations, commercial and leadership roles located in Canada, Norway, and the United States with oversight roles spanning the globe.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Whelan was senior vice-president, upstream, responsible for Exxon Mobil Corporation’s conventional and heavy oil global business line.  In this role, Mr. Whelan led 13 global business units across the United States, Canada, Europe, Caspian, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions.  Prior to that assignment, Mr. Whelan served as Imperial Oil’s senior vice president, upstream from 2017 to 2020. 

Throughout his career Mr. Whelan has successfully focused on driving operational excellence through all lifecycle phases while integrating strategy, business insights, and portfolio development to deliver exceptional performance and continuous improvement across the full value chain. 

Originally from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Mr. Whelan holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Mr. Whelan serves as vice-chair on the Board of Governors for The Glenbow Museum and sits on the Engineering and Applied Science Advisory Board for Memorial University of Newfoundland.