Mr. Mallon brings more than four decades of global energy and offshore operating experience, including 35 years with Mobil and ExxonMobil. Before retiring in 2025, he served as President of ExxonMobil Upstream Company and Vice President of ExxonMobil Corporation, overseeing the company’s worldwide upstream portfolio spanning oil and gas exploration, development, and operations.
In that role, Mr. Mallon oversaw $20–30 billion in annual capital deployment and led a transformation of ExxonMobil’s upstream business, restructuring its operating model and doubling profitability. He played a central role in portfolio strategy, M&A, and major growth projects, including ExxonMobil’s Guyana development and the $60 billion acquisition and integration of Pioneer Natural Resources, which made ExxonMobil the largest producer in the Permian Basin. Throughout his career, he also managed relationships with governments, national oil companies, and ministries across major energy-producing regions.
Mr. Mallon will lead the Board’s Sustainability and Innovation Committee, with a focus on driving innovations that improve offshore project economics and enable rapid scaling of offshore operations while carefully managing impacts.
Liam Mallon commented: “TMC is leading a new offshore critical minerals industry from concept, exploration, and technology demonstration to commercial operations. I have spent much of my career developing complex and unconventional resources in challenging environments on land and at sea, and building the organizations to operate them safely and reliably at scale. Bringing that experience to TMC as it prepares to establish the world’s first commercial subsea mining operation on the high seas is a compelling opportunity. I look forward to supporting the team through this next phase.”
TMC Chairman & CEO Gerard Barron commented: “Liam brings the experience that matters as we prepare for commercial operations: delivering complex offshore projects and overseeing major capital investment. His perspective will strengthen our Board’s oversight of execution, capital allocation and risk as we work to translate our resource opportunity into long-term shareholder value. We are building the capabilities to deliver, and Liam’s appointment is an important step forward.”
As Mr. Mallon joins the Board, Brendan May will step down. TMC thanks Mr. May for his important contributions over the past two years, including engaging with various stakeholder communities on the environmental advantages of the Company’s proposed operations.
The appointment of Liam Mallon follows progress on The Metals Company USA LLC’s (TMC USA) applications for exploration and commercial recovery of seabed minerals through NOAA’s regulatory pathway. In August, NOAA published TMC USA’s consolidated application for an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit over the USA-A area in the Federal Register. Days earlier, NOAA published a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register to develop an Environmental Impact Statement for TMC USA’s exploration license application over the USA-B area. These recent developments represent the latest milestones in NOAA’s review process as TMC USA moves closer to commercial production.