Meg O'Neill

Meg O'Neill was raised in Boulder, Colorado. Her father worked as an engineer, initially at Bell Labs and later in start-ups, which sparked her interest in math and science. When she left high school, O’Neill had tossed up between studying engineering or history. She attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she initially studied chemical engineering but later shifted her focus to ocean engineering, ultimately earning degrees in both fields. Her passion for the international aspects of the petroleum industry was influenced by an exchange year she spent in Finland.

O'Neill began her career at ExxonMobil, working in a variety of technical, operational, and leadership roles across multiple countries.

She began her career with ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas, where she worked on offshore oil fields modelling for four years. Following this, she transitioned to reservoir engineering in New Orleans.

In 2003, O'Neill was given an engineering leadership role in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she managed the company’s LNG gas fields in Aceh, shortly after the region was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

After three years in Aceh, O'Neill returned to ExxonMobil’s headquarters in Houston for a global role overseeing reservoir engineers, and later led offshore operations in Newfoundland, Canada. She then served as the country manager in Norway.

After Norway, she returned to Houston to oversee operations in the Asia Pacific region, gaining her first exposure to Western Australia through Exxon’s stake in the Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island.

In 2016, O'Neill was appointed as an executive advisor to Rex Tillerson, who was the CEO of ExxonMobil at the time. Following Tillerson's nomination by President Donald Trump to serve as the United States Secretary of State, Darren Woods assumed the role of CEO and Chairman in 2017. O'Neill continued in her advisory capacity under Woods.

Prior to leaving ExxonMobil in March 2018, Meg held the position of Vice President, Africa for ExxonMobil Development Company based in Houston, where she was responsible for ExxonMobil’s major projects across Africa, including Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique.

O'Neill is a lesbian. She moved to Perth, Australia in 2018 to become Woodside's CEO where she now lives with her wife, Vicky Hayes, and teenage daughter.

In 2023, climate activists from the group Disrupt Burrup Hub were arrested outside O'Neill's house in City Beach, Perth, where they planned to vandalise her home in protest of Woodside's gas expansion plans.

An avid sports participant in her youth, O'Neill now enjoys netball and golf and is involved in Perth’s arts scene, including serving on the board of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

She is a current member of Chief Executive Women and University of Western Australia Business School.