Chevron Corp. on Sept. 30 named Marissa Badenhorst as vice president of health, safety and environment, succeeding James David (Dave) Payne who plans to retire next year after 39 years with the San Ramon, Calif.-based company.

Badenhorst, 45, currently serves as general manager of enterprise process safety. She joined Chevron over 20 years ago in Cape Town, South Africa, and has since held leadership positions of increased responsibility at the Cape Town refinery, Pascagoula refinery and in Perth, Australia, where she provided facilities engineering support to the Gorgon and Wheatstone assets.

“During Marissa’s time leading enterprise process safety, we’ve seen record high safety performance at Chevron,” Eimear Bonner, Chevron vice president and CTO, commented in a company release.

Effective Jan. 1, Badenhorst will report to Bonner and be responsible for leading Chevron’s health, safety and environment function, including risk management and emergency response.

“She is a proven leader,” Bonner said of Badenhorst, “with a breadth and depth of experience in operations, maintenance and reliability as well as technical and process safety management across global organizations that will advance our aim to lead our industry in health, safety and environmental performance.”

“I’m truly grateful to Dave for his decades of leadership and his commitment to the health and welfare of all his Chevron colleagues,” Bonner added of Payne in the release.

Payne, 61, began his career in 1981 at Getty Oil Co., which was acquired by a predecessor of Chevron a few years later. He has held various engineering and management positions in California, Louisiana, Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Since 2018, Payne served as vice president of health, safety and environment for Chevron. Previously, he was vice president of drilling and completions since 2006 and, prior to that, was the drilling manager in Bangkok, Thailand.

“Dave’s career spans the globe and he leaves a legacy that puts the safety of our people and our operations at the core of how we work,” Bonner said. “Most recently, Dave has led the company’s response to the pandemic and the tireless efforts of his team deserve the highest recognition.”