ExxonMobil Donates $18 mi to Houston Health Institutions

ExxonMobil today announced $18 million in grants to Houston health care facilities to support cancer prevention and cardiovascular research, expand pediatric care for children with autism and enhance pediatric liver disease research and clinical services.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will receive $10 million; $5 million will go to the Texas Heart Institute and $3 million to Texas Children’s Hospital.

“ExxonMobil has had a long and deep involvement with Houston and Texas,” said Rex W. Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM). “These world-renowned institutions are helping improve the health and lives of families in the greater Houston area and around the world, and we’re proud to support their important mission.”

ExxonMobil’s $10 million grant to MD Anderson will support the Healthy Community Initiative, which will implement strategies to reduce the risk of developing cancer and other chronic disease in a community to be selected in the Houston area. MD Anderson will team with local officials to support comprehensive health policies, education campaigns and wellness and prevention services at workplaces, schools and throughout the community. Practices that show health improvements in the community can then serve as a model for other organizations to implement locally and nationally.

“With this leadership gift we have the opportunity to make the vision of a healthy Texas a reality,” said Dr. Ron DePinho, president of MD Anderson. “We’re grateful for ExxonMobil’s generosity, its commitment to our community and its partnership inour mission to end cancer.”

The $5 million pledge to the Texas Heart Institute will be directed to ground-breaking cardiovascular research and new medical discoveries to address heart disease -- the leading cause of death in the nation. From the engineering of artificial hearts to advancements in regenerative medicine, which uses patients’ own adult stem cells to create whole hearts, the Texas Heart Institute is offering new hope to thousands of patients worldwide who are not candidates for a heart transplant.

“We are very grateful to ExxonMobil for the impact this generous gift will have,” said Dr. James T. Willerson, president of Texas Heart Institute. “Cardiovascular disease is the number one threat to the health of all Americans and this transformational gift will help us break even more new ground in the fight against it.”

ExxonMobil’s $3 million grant to Texas Children’s Hospital will support pioneering research and clinical services for children,

including care and treatment of life-threatening liver disease. The grant will also expand services in development and behavior pediatrics for a large and growing number of children with autism, developmental disabilities and behavioral conditions, and support nurses working to earn baccalaureate degrees. In addition, the grant will support evaluation of cases of survivors treated in critical care, with a focus on long-term effects from treatment.

“Physicians and researchers across every pediatric specialty and subspecialty are making incredible advances at Texas Children’s every day,” said Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. “All of us are delighted about ExxonMobil’s commitment to support the hospital.”

ExxonMobil has 13,000 employees in the Houston area and thousands more work for companies providing goods and services to the company. ExxonMobil is expanding its presence in the Houston area with the construction of a new campus and a new multi-billion dollar chemical plant expansion at Baytown. About 15,000 construction jobs are being created by the two projects and when completed, the projects will support tens of thousands of permanent jobs in the greater Houston area.

ExxonMobil contributes to health and human services, education, the arts and promotes employee volunteerism for charitable nonprofit organizations, including a record $13.4 million raised for the United Way of Greater Houston in 2013. During the past decade, ExxonMobil employees, retirees and their families donated more than 2 million volunteer hours to more than 1,100 organizations in the greater Houston area. During that time, ExxonMobil and employees and retirees contributed more than $200 million to Houston-area organizations focused primarily on health, education and the arts.