Just one day before Exxon Mobil was expected to unveil the biggest quarterly profit in US corporate history, the company's founding Rockefeller family gave warning that it was falling behind competitors in key areas of renewable technology such as wind and solar power.

The family, which still owns a substantial, but undisclosed, minority stake in the group, called for the appointment of a new independent chairman, which it said would be the best way to shake up the backward-looking senior management team.

Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company, is expected to report first-quarter profits of about $12 billion (£6.05 billion) today, narrowly beating the record US quarterly profit of $11.7 billion that it set in the last quarter of 2007.

But the descendants of John D. Rockefeller, founder of the Standard Oil Company, which has become Exxon, attribute much of the group's success to the surging price of oil.

Neva Rockefeller Goodwin, John's great granddaughter, yesterday accused Exxon of “focusing on a narrow path that ignores the rapidly shifting energy landscape around the world”.

Peter O'Neill, head of the Rockefeller family committee dealing with Exxon and great, great, grandson of John, added: “Having an independent chairman leading an independent-thinking board of very experienced directors will substantially improve Exxon's ability to look the future squarely in the face and will increase its flexibility.”

An Exxon spokesman said: “We are focused on delivering the energy the world runs on today, reliably and safely and with a lower environment footprint. In addition, we are focused on R&D activity and looking for the step-change breakthrough that would improve the economics of various alternatives.”

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