Odds narrow on BP chairman
By Emiliya Mychasuk and Emiko Terazono
Published: August 21 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 21 2008 03:00
Rio Tinto chairman Paul Skinner has stretched into the lead as a rumoured candidate for the BP chairman’s job, as the head hunters narrow their lists before the 2009 handover by Peter Sutherland .
Mr Skinner will know by then whether the bid by BHP Billiton for rival Rio is likely to succeed and leave him free for the BP job.
It would be a nice irony, as the other rumoured main contender is former BHP boss Chip Goodyear .
But his successor at BHP, Marius Kloppers , has placed a “short” on the prospects of Mr Goodyear turning up as BP chairman (see www.ft.com/vftt).
Rolls-Royce’s long-serving chief executive Sir John Rose was also on bookie lists but said recently that he hadn’t been approached. Mr Skinner, of course, knows the tricky oil business inside out after a 40-year career at Shell.
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
“Mr Skinner, of course, knows the tricky oil business inside out after a 40-year career at Shell.”
True of course but Paul was never an Upstream man. He ran the Downstream in his last Shell job – but he was very much in the mix as a CMD member when the Reserves debacle was going on. He was a contender for the top job in Shell, but they eventually chose Watts. I suspect that things might have been different (and better) had PS got the job!
The world of E&P was rather foreign to Paul and no doubt still is. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I always found him pleasant enough. He made a nice little speech about me at an event shortly before I retired – a nice gesture I thought at the time, and still do.
Good luck to him if he does get the BP Chair.