One of the scions of New Brunswick’s powerful Irving family has left his leadership role with Irving Oil Ltd.

Arthur Irving, 93, is no longer chairman of the company’s board of directors.

The company’s website now lists Irving, the second son of industrialist K.C. Irving, in an emeritus role, stating that “Mr. Irving continues to maintain a respected advisory role for the board and its activities.”

Arthur’s daughter Sarah Irving, previously listed as executive vice-president and chief brand officer, is also no longer part of Irving Oil’s leadership team.

The bombshell changes come in the wake of a strategic review of the company’s future launched in June.

Irving Oil did not immediately return requests to comment on the changes.

The rest of the leadership group remains intact, with Ian Whitcomb listed as president; Kevin Scott as chief refining and supply officer; Darren Gillis as chief marketing officer; Jennifer Beach as chief human resources and corporate administration officer; Jeff Matthews as chief financial officer; John Laidlaw as chief legal officer and Kelley Greer White as chief information officer.

Peter McNay has joined the group as chief strategic program delivery officer and is responsible for its building operations team, Irving Oil said.

The changes come just months after Irving Oil, which runs Canada’s largest crude oil refinery, launched a strategic review that the company acknowledged could lead to its full or partial sale.

It was an announcement that sent immediate shock waves throughout New Brunswick over the future of one of the province’s largest homegrown employers, with the public declaration also raising eyebrows coming from a company that is notoriously private.

“No decisions have been made about where this strategic review may lead,” said the joint statement released in June, signed by Arthur Irving, Sarah Irving and Whitcomb. “Consideration will be given to a new ownership structure, a full or partial sale, or a change in the portfolio of our assets and how we operate them.”

Premier Blaine Higgs said at the time that Irving Oil’s words would undoubtedly create “anxiety,” although he suggested the review was not necessarily unexpected in a changing energy landscape.

Founded in 1924, Irving Oil operates Canada’s largest refinery and is a leading symbol of the New Brunswick family’s success story.

It now has more than 900 fuelling locations and a network of distribution terminals spanning Eastern Canada and New England while employing roughly 4,000 people. It also operates Ireland’s only refinery.

The Saint John refinery is New Brunswick’s largest exporter by far, exporting up to $11 billion in oil annually, while employing hundreds in the province.

The changes come as the fossil fuel industry in Canada is at a crossroads, with governments attempting to speed up the transition to renewable energy.

While processing 320,000 barrels of oil a day, the refinery is New Brunswick’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter.

Irving Oil is also currently at the forefront of a fight over looming federal clean-fuel regulations.

Gradually forcing suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity of their fuel has ultimately forced refiners to make changes, at a cost.

But Irving Oil has resisted.

The Higgs government instead introduced legislation last year to allow that added cost to be passed on to consumers, changing the price-setting formula for gasoline and other liquid fuels to include a “cost of carbon adjuster” in the province’s Energy and Utilities Board formula.

An extra seven cents was tacked on at the pump beginning in mid-July, on top of the annual federal carbon tax increases.

The New Brunswick refinery is valued at roughly $2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The billionaires index lists Arthur Irving as Canada’s 15th-richest person with a net worth of $5.4 billion, also placing him 463rd in a world ranking.

It’s a dollar figure that has slumped of late from a high of more than $9 billion in 2021.

The index says Arthur Irving’s net worth factors in the more than 900 gas and convenience stores Irving Oil owns, but also his generational wealth, including a $3-billion trust left by his father split between him and his two brothers.