The directors of Expand Energy Corp. have thanked chief executive officer Nick Dell’Osso for his services and installed chairman Mike Wichterich as interim leader while they search for a successor.
In a statement, Expand said the 49-year-old Dell’Osso—who had led the company since October 2021 (when it was still Chesapeake Energy) and steered it through the 2024 merger with Southwestern Energy—also has resigned his seat on the company’s board. Dell’Osso will, however, be an external advisor to the company during a transition period. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Expand said it is working on a severance agreement with Dell’Osso, whose exit is being deemed a termination without cause.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank Nick for his leadership and many contributions since first joining the company in 2008,” Wichterich said in the statement. “During his tenure as CEO, the company has grown from a $5 billion business to a $26 billion investment-grade enterprise included in the S&P 500 Index. We are grateful for his leadership in setting a strong foundation for our future.”
Wichterich was interim chief executive of the former Chesapeake before Dell’Osso took over in 2021 and served as executive chairman of the new Expand through the end of 2022. He is the founder of Three Rivers Operating Co. LLC, an exploration and production company focused on the Permian basin.
In early trading Feb. 9, shares of Expand (Ticker: EXE) were down nearly 6% to about $103.80. That move down knocked about $1.6 billion from the market capitalization of Expand, which now stands at roughly $24.7 billion.
In announcing Dell’Osso departure, Expand’s board said nothing has changed about its operating and spending forecasts for fourth-quarter 2025, results of which will be released Feb. 17.
Another major change is the company's plan to relocate headquarters to Spring, Tex., from Oklahoma City. The relocation, directors said, “will primarily focus on the executive leadership team” and focus on tightening Expand’s relationships with other energy players in Houston. Oklahoma City, they added, will remain “an important center of excellence for the company.”
The news is a second corporate blow in a short period for Oklahoma City. Devon Energy Corp. last week said it also would move its home base to Houston as part of the planned acquisition of Coterra Energy Inc.
About the Author
Geert De Lombaerde
Senior Editor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal and T&D World. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.