Business comment
By Sylvia Pfeifer, Deputy Business Editor, Sunday Telegraph
No one has seen Jorma Olilla, the former head of Nokia, since he took over as chairman of Royal Dutch Shell some nine months ago. The appointment of the Finnish entrepreneur, who transformed a little-known manufacturer of rubber boots and paper products into a household name, was greeted as a sign that the famously bureaucratic Anglo-Dutch oil giant was embracing a new era of openness.
He was an outsider, not British or Dutch, who would lead the company after the damaging reserves scandal that led to the departure of Shell’s three most senior executives and paved the way for the historic merger of its two subsidiaries. Some investors I spoke to last week were unhappy about his lack of communication with the City. He has held no meetings with shareholders since his appointment. The mood among investors is one of déjà-vu that Shell is returning to its old ways of keeping investors at arm’s length. More worryingly, the message that has come back so far is that Olilla doesn’t meet investors – instead, Lord Kerr, Shell’s likeable deputy chairman, who helped recruit Olilla, is put forward as a substitute.
City investors are no wallflowers and often huff and puff to little consequence. But in the case of Shell many felt severely let down during the reserves debacle and so feel strongly they should get a chance to meet the new chairman. Company insiders insist it is not a deliberate slight and that Olilla has been focusing on getting to know the business and Shell’s myriad geographic sites. Nevertheless, it would be a shame if the company, which under chief executive Jeroen van der Veer has done much to improve its relations with the City, should fail to capitalise on its opportunity for a fresh start. It’s time for the man from Nokia to start sending out the right signals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/02/25/ccom25.xml
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.
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.
