Shell’s queen of the gas fields
Published: July 9 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 9 2008 03:00
In what now appears to be a two-horse race for the chief executive’s job at Royal Dutch Shell, Linda Cook has some advantages over her leading rival Malcolm Brinded, head of exploration and production.
As head of gas and power, she is in charge of Shell’s world-leading business in liquefied natural gas, one of its big hopes for the future. Born in Kansas in 1958, she is 50, five years younger than Mr Brinded, which may help. In an industry chronically short of talent and desperate to attract more women, her appointment as the first female boss of a big oil company would send a powerful signal.
In a previous FT interview, she contemplated whether she was a token woman. “Do I think there might be people in the company who think that somewhere along the way I got a promotion because of my gender? I can’t deny that that might be the case. How could that not bother you? But I don’t waste a lot of time worrying about it.”
Ms Cook graduated with degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Kansas and joined Shell Oil in 1980 as a reservoir engineer. She has come a long way since a foreman barred her entry to an oil rig for being a woman. She became chief executive of Shell Gas & Power in 2000 and joined the main board in 2004.
Her husband Steve takes care of the home and their three children.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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.
