A Change at Jersey

Like an increasing number of U.S.

firms, Jersey Standard, the world's largest oil company and the third biggest U.S. corporation (after General Motors and A.T. & T.), has an inflexible retirement policy: from charlady to chair man, its 147,000 employees must leave at 65. Last week, as he reached that age, Chairman Monroe Jackson Rathbone announced both his departure and his successor. While Founder John D.

Rockefeller looked down from the wall of Jersey Standard's oak-lined boardroom in Rockefeller Center, President Michael L. Haider (rhymes with wider), 60, for the first time tested the huge leather chair of the chairman and chief executive. As expected, chair and chairman seemed to fit each other nicely.

Rough to Smooth. Haider will head a company ten times bigger than the "octopus" that the Supreme Court forced

John D. to break up in 1911. Jersey Standard has 200 affiliate companies in 100 nations, produces one of every six barrels of world oil. Humble Oil, its biggest affiliate and the source of 40% of Jersey's profits, produces 8% of all U.S. crude oil and natural gas, sells 13% of the nation's petroleum products. Jersey last year earned a record $1.1 billion on its sales of $12 billion; this year it anticipates a 4% increase.

Cherub-faced Mike Haider is an oilman of a different stripe than his predecessor. Rathbone came up as a refinery man, was a tough administrator. "If you ask if I like to leave," he growled last week, "the answer is 'Hell, no.' " Softer-spoken North Dakotan Haider, a Stanford graduate ('27) in chemical engineering, is a research and exploration expert; among other Jersey jobs, he brought in Imperial Oil's Leduc No. 1 in Alberta, the find that started western Canada's oil boom in 1947. Despite their different backgrounds, Haider (whose salary will soon match Rathbone's $293,000) will run giant Jersey in much the same fashion as Rathbone. His chief responsibility will be chairing the daily executive committee meetings and weekly gatherings of the tightlipped, 15-man inside board and shaping broad policy, while Jersey's new president, John Kenneth Jamieson, 54, oversees day-to-day operations.

Dry & Wet. In a global company, the policy problems can be considerable. Despite a continuing oil glut, Jersey is energetically prospecting for more oil against the day a decade from now when world demand approaches supply. Haider must decide on commitments in the North Sea, where the search looks good, and in Australia, where so far it has been poor. He faces major decisions on marketing policy for such areas as Japan and Europe, where demand for oil--as well as competition --is skyrocketing with industrialization.

He must also negotiate with emerging nations seeking control of oil resources and producing nations demanding hither royalties. Jersey's size also makes it a prime antitrust target. Last week Rathbone himself appeared in court to defend the purchase of the Potash Co. of America for its fertilizer facilities, and Humble announced that, since it has been barred by the Justice Department from acquiring Tidewater Oil's $329 million West Coast marketing network, it will build its own California refinery.

Away from work, Haider will relieve his mind of such problems by enlarging his collection of geological specimens and primitive pottery. He also enjoys dry, dry martinis and salt water. An enthusiastic yachtsman, he and his wife Alice are trading up to a 38-footer in which they will cruise during the summer between Manhattan and Cape Cod, where they like to settle down at Chatham Bars Inn, their favorite holiday spot. Naturally, Haider's new boat is gasoline-powered. It would hardly do for the chairman of the world's largest oil company to travel under sail.

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