Published: December 5 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 5 2008 02:00
When Mark Williams takes over at Royal Dutch Shell as the new director of downstream in January, he has two important decisions to make.
They will be the appointments of the rising stars of Shell’s future and will offer a glimpse of the changes to come under new chief executive Peter Voser when he takes over next July.
As the new head of Europe’s biggest producer and seller of oil products, Mr Williams will first find a successor for himself as head of oil products supply and distribution, as well as a new head of refining to replace Lynn Elsenhans, who left earlier in the year.
At 57, Mr Williams brings plenty of experience to the job.
He is also older than his future boss, Mr Voser, who is 50, but will be under no pressure to serve a brief term, as the retirement age in the Netherlands, where he will be based, is 65.
A US citizen, Mr Williams has a daunting intellectual pedigree: he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and has a doctorate in theoretical physics from Stanford.
He joined Shell’s exploration and drilling business in 1979 in the US and has held a variety of upstream and downstream positions in the company. He chairs the executive committee of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and the downstream committee of the American Petroleum Institute. A father of two, he enjoys astronomy.
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.
