By Emiliya Mychasuk and Emiko Terazono
Published: November 2 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 2 2007 02:00
No sooner had the urbane Rio chairman Paul Skinner completed a summer merger with Alcan, than the the miner was being mooted by traders as a takeover target.
Well respected by investors, the 62-year-old has been Rio chairman since 2003 and now has a new chief executive by his side in Tom Albanese, who took over from the mining group’s veteran Leigh Clifford in May. They have the looming task of welding Rio and Alcan together.
Mr Skinner came from Shell, where he spent 40 years travelling the world with the oil group.
As an undergraduate wanting to work in an international business, he turned to Shell to sponsor his studies at Cambridge. There he read law and was a football blue. His career at the oil group took him to New Zealand, Greece, Nigeria and Norway, and in his last job with the group Mr Skinner was chief executive of Shell’s refining business with 80,000 workers across 140 countries.
After losing out on the chairman’s job to Sir Philip Watts, he left the company.
His other board roles include a seat on the MoD’s defence management board as well as Standard Chartered and packaging group Tetra Laval.
He listens to opera on his iPod and enjoys skiing and golf.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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.
