Published: March 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 13 2009 02:00
Not many people at Royal Dutch Shell survived its reserves misreporting scandal with their reputations intact, but new finance director Simon Henry was one of them.
Mr Henry has risen since then to become one of four executives on the Shell board, after bearing the wrath of shareholders as the head of investor relations when Shell first admitted it had a problem, on January 9 2004.
It was he who came out to face the music when Sir Philip Watts, then chairman, would not, taking a conference call with angry investors.
Earning their respect, he was rewarded by Jeroen van der Veer after he took over as chief executive in 2004, giving Mr Henry the job of chief financial officer of Shell’s exploration and production arm, and the focus of its growth strategy.
Having been CFO in the biggest and most glamorous division, it is a natural step for him to succeed Peter Voser at the top level, as Mr Voser replaces Mr van der Veer.
The 47-year-old has spent all of his career at Shell after joining in 1982, working around the world, including Egypt and south-east Asia.
He trained as an engineer, after gaining a first in maths at Cambridge, but after four years switched to audit after coming top in his exams for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
“[That] suggested to me that I would have a better career in that, than engineering,” he once said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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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.
