Burden promoted, moves to Texas; Cason new Tesoro Alaska president

Kay Cashman

Last week, Gene Burden officially stepped down as president of Tesoro Alaska and Rodney Cason, Tesoro’s refinery manager at Kenai, took his place as president of the company.

“What’s happened in Alaska is consistent with what Tesoro is doing system-wide,” Cason told PNA and in a June 12 interview. “The intent of the company for some time has been to make the president of the region and the refinery manager the same person.”

Four of Tesoro’s six refinery managers have taken over as regional presidents, he said. Cason has been with the company since 1976 and been in management since 1986. His entire 26 years with Tesoro has been in Alaska.

Cason moved to Alaska from San Angelo, Texas, in 1976 with his father, intending to teach school in the state but got a job with Tesoro before the school year began and stayed with the company. Cason will continue to be based in Kenai and plans to visit the Anchorage office, the company’s retail headquarters for the state, approximately once a week. He plans no major changes for Tesoro’s operations in Alaska.

After a vacation in Paris, Gene Burden has landed in San Antonio. When PNA spoke to him on June 10, he wasn’t certain of his new title but he said he has been promoted to head Tesoro’s system-wide human resources department, including labor relations for its six refineries, five of which have labor contracts.

“I will be responsible for all the company’s conventional human resource activities and government relations, both federal and state,” he said. “I will still have a lot of interactions with the state of Alaska in my new position … and be up there from time to time. … I feel more at home there than any place I have ever lived. In a few more years I expect to land up with a cabin in Alaska — at least for summer months.”

It has been 18 years since Burden moved from Texas to Alaska.