The Guardian: Downstream do: ‘worry that Shell is in denial’
17 June 2004
Its tempting to believe that Shell has chosen to hold its annual meeting on June 28 in London’s Docklands for the first time this year so that fewer investors will bother to make the long trek to east London in order to give management a hard time.
The company insists the change of the meeting’s date – which was put back following the reserves scandal – made it hard to find another suitable venue at short notice.
Meanwhile the formal resolutions for the occasion do not suggest any wild confrontations ahead. After the initial flurry of lawsuits from angry American shareholders, the Anglo-Dutch group has pretty much been left alone by the rest of its investors to undertake a promised review of its board and management structures.
Shell has been holding meetings with investors and has been open about the scale of its difficulties and its determination to deal with them.
But there has been an absence of information on exactly how its critical review is taking place, what issues are being considered and who precisely has been doing the reviewing.
This has left some to worry that Shell is “in denial” about the scale of its problems and still struggling to escape its former culture of secrecy. The big American investor, Calpers, and the experienced shareholder activist, Knight Vinke, broke cover yesterday by writing a long and sharp letter to Shell via the pages of the FT.
The oil major is expected to respond directly to some of the issues today or tomorrow but it does not bode well for the leviathan that its responses only appear after so much public prodding.
Nearly half a year has passed since Shell sullied its blue chip reputation by announcing a 20% reduction in its reserves base. The annual meeting is the opportunity to convince us – at last – that more has changed besides the names of a few directors.
Shell Transport chairman Lord Oxburgh is certainly switched on to the reality of climate change – today’s Life section carries the full details.
Let’s hope he is being equally clear-headed about the need for profound change within his own organisation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1240515,00.html
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
