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May 17th, 2004:

Spring Cleaning

Time Magazine: Spring Cleaning: Europe’s CEOs are biting the dust as a more American-style shareholder activism reaches the boardroom

 By PETER GUMBEL/PARIS

Monday, May. 17, 2004

The board at Shell knew it needed to do something, and fast. A shocking revelation in January — that the world’s third largest oil company had overstated its proven petroleum reserves by 20%–was pummeling its stock price and angering shareholders. Regulators on two continents had started investigations. So in early March the board acted, ousting Philip Watts, who had been managing director of the Anglo-Dutch company for almost seven years and chairman since 2001, and replacing him with Jeroen van der Veer, president of Shell’s Dutch sister company, Royal Dutch Petroleum. A quick cure for all those headaches?
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This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

U.K. Regulator Weighs Becoming More Public


U.K. Regulator Weighs Becoming More Public

FSA Considers Announcing Inquiries Amid Concerns

It Is Slow to Take Action

By SILVIA ASCARELLI

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

May 17, 2004

LONDON — Concerned that investors may think it is slow to pursue wrongdoing, the U.K.’s traditionally tight-lipped financial regulator is debating whether to be more public about its inquiries.

Such concerns prompted last month’s unusual decision by the Financial Services Authority to announce it is indeed investigating Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch/Shell Group over recent disclosures surrounding its reserve levels.
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This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Dutch financial market watchdog has cleared Royal Dutch/Shell

The Times: Need to Know: Global Business Briefing 

May 17, 2004

AFM, the Dutch financial market watchdog, has cleared Royal Dutch/Shell of failing to notify the regulator of plans to transfer 63,000 shares to Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s chairman, under its long-term incentive plan.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Dutch regulator exempts Shell pay packages

Financial Times: Dutch regulator exempts Shell pay packages

By Clay Harris, Carola Hoyos and Ian Bickerton

Published: May 16 2004

The Dutch regulator investigating the Royal Dutch/Shell reserves crisis said on Sunday night that performance-related packages granted to Jeroen van der Veer, chairman of its management committee, and another senior executive were exempt from its registration rules.

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) said that after “careful consideration this weekend” it had decided that the packages had been “granted under specific conditions to be met in the future” and did not need to be registered.
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This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Road to Damascus

Financial Times: OBSERVER: Road to Damascus

May 17, 2004

Corporate social responsibility conferences often involve the virtuous preaching smugly to the converted. So hats off to an international conference held in New York last week to address “promises and challenges” in developing voluntary codes of conduct for multinational companies.

Amid the usual ethical throng of experts, academics, monitors and fund managers, the three speakers at a plenary session on “integrating ethics” stood out: MCI, formerly known as Worldcom; Shell, of the famously flexible oil reserves; and the consultants PwC, fined $2.4m earlier that same week by the Securities and Exchange Commission for “aiding and abetting” reporting violations by the garment maker Warnaco.
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This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.