Despite the perks, being a CEO must be a pretty tough job. It was at least a tough day for Chevron Chairman and CEO David O’Reilly Wednesday, when his company’s annual meeting was host to activists protesting pollution and human rights violations. The volume of protestors was such that at one point the entrance to the meeting was blocked. Two key issues were the company’s involvement in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador and its human rights record, including a recently settled suit involving a hostage situation in Nigeria. Chevron is currently awaiting a verdict from a judge in Ecuador that could cost it $27 billion in fines due to alleged pollution by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, O'Reilly told protestors they were blaming the wrong company for the pollution. Texaco drilled for oil in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992, then turned over operations to Petroecuador. Chevron inherited the suit when it bought Texaco. "These problems are not the problems of Texaco," O'Reilly said. "They're the problems of the government of Ecuador and Petroecuador." According to an article by the Associated Press, the company was able, more or less, to conduct the business at hand despite the protests. Three key shareholder proposals were considered: a more detailed human rights policy, a proposal for a report on Chevron’s criteria for investing or operating in countries with questionable human rights records, and the company’s approach to assessing environmental laws in other countries. The human rights policy got 26% of the vote; previous proposals in the past have not received more than 10%, the article states. A report titled “The True Cost of Chevron,” which accuses the company of destroying communities, causing environmental damage, and being politically oppressive, drew derision from O’Reilly, who called it “insulting to our employees, and I think it deserves the trash can.” Another proposal seeking more clarity on Chevron’s plans to help curb climate change and lower its greenhouse gas emissions was withdrawn. The proposal was supported by Patricia Daly of Sisters of St. Dominic, a faith-based institutional investor. Daly was attending the ExxonMobil shareholders meeting in Dallas but told the Associated Press that after meeting with Chevron’s management, she was satisfied that the company is taking the right steps in this direction. ExxonMobil executives were less fortunate, although its meeting was apparently less raucous than the San Ramon, Calif., contretemps. “Exxon officials were also questioned about environmental issues and executive pay, but shareholders ultimately stood by management and voted down all 11 resolutions presented there,” the Associated Press article states. A Reuters report added that ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told shareholders that his company would stick with investing to help meet global energy demand, a strategy he said had helped it weather the current downturn.