That’s a headline from a post written two years ago when Reese Energy Consulting covered Hollub’s appearance at a New York Times-sponsored Climate Forward Forum where she was set for an interview with a Times reporter. But before the interview could get underway, an activist group took control of the stage where Hollub was seated. Unfazed and undeterred by the interruption, Hollub returned to the stage shortly after to finish what she came there for as a CEO of an oil and gas company applying billion-dollar technologies to reduce and capture C02 emissions.

And then, like sweet chocolate syrup and sprinkles on ice cream, Hollub ripped the Times reporter a new one, dressing him down for his lack of education on the subject and interview preparedness with a final smack, “See? You should know this like the back of your hand.” Good golly, Miss Molly.

Plucky is a word that best describes Vicki Hollub, CEO of Houston-based Occidental, the first woman to capture that title in the nation’s oil and gas industry. After 40 years of service at a company she’s led since 2016, Hollub now prepares to retire her post, hand over the keys, and no doubt reflect on the transformations under her watch that have made Hollub crude oil’s most powerful woman in charge and Oxy an oil and gas giant. Sources say she’ll make a formal announcement by the end of the year.

Think about it. Three years into her leadership role, Hollub took a monster risk with a monster acquisition just before the price pendulum began to swing in a negative direction. Oxy’s goliath $56 billion purchase of Anadarko Petroleum gobsmacked Wall Street but made it the largest operator in the Permian Basin at the time. Other challenges soon followed to pay down the enormous debt that came with the Anadarko deal. Let’s not forget COVID in 2020, which essentially shut down the world and upended any sale of international assets Oxy inherited. Still, Hollub did what she does best to overcome the worst of times. She diversified her company, bought more assets to grow the company’s Permian position, and sold assets at a premium. Vicki Hollub is an oil and gas rockstar who’s inspired numerous other women to take the reins as leaders in a male-dominant industry. We can’t wait to see who she arm wrestles with next.