?????????????Royaldutchshellplc.com?????????30%?????????
May, 2009:
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“Grondige reorganisatie Shell”
Om kosten te besparen zou de nieuwe ceo van Shell 30 procent van de senior managers een gouden handdruk willen geven, zo schrijft Shell-criticus John Donovan op zijn website. Die informatie zegt hij van binnen het bedrijf te hebben.
Snur Shell på hodet
Ifølge royaldutchshellplc.com, som er et uavhengig nettsted for Shell-ansatte, vil mer enn 30 prosent av høyere ledere måtte gå.
Shell rumored to plan restructuring, layoffs
LONDON Royal Dutch Shell will announce a major company restructuring, merging its exploration and production and gas and power units and laying off more than 30 percent of senior management, according to a post on the blog of Shell critic John Donovan Tuesday.
Shell’s incoming chief executive Peter Voser will announce the measures Thursday at a meeting of around 100 top company executives in Berlin, Donovan wrote on the blog royaldutchshellplc.com, citing multiple unnamed people working for Shell.
Cost cutting to top agenda of incoming Shell chief
By Ed Crooks
Published: May 27 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 27 2009 03:00
Peter Voser, who takes over as chief executive at Royal Dutch Shell on July 1, is not wasting any time in reshaping the company the way he wants it.
After having spent five years as chief financial officer , it would be surprising if he did not have some reasonably well-formed ideas about what he wants to do.
The departure of Linda Cook as head of gas and power presages a more fundamental shake-up at Shell.
Those changes can be expected to include a systematic attack on the company’s costs.
The most informative online source of Royal Dutch Shell news
By John Donovan
This was all the information published by Shell on its official website yesterday concerning the departure of Linda Cook.
26/05/2009 Royal Dutch Shell plc announces directorate change
The Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc announced today that Mrs Linda Cook will resign as Executive Director of the Company on 1st June 2009. She has served the Company for 29 years of which the last 5 years as Executive Director of Gas & Power, Shell Trading, Global Solutions and Technology.
Compare that with the wealth of information and comment published here the same day in the form of articles and Shell Blog postings. We are especially grateful for all the Shell insider contributions which make this site far and away the best online source of honest information and debate about Royal Dutch Shell i.e. free of Shell spin and influence.
Linda Cook, Shell’s top woman executive, resigns
Linda Cook, the head of Shells gas business, resigned abruptly yesterday, the first boardroom casualty at the hands of Peter Voser, the new chief executive of the oil company.
Shell shock as long-timer Cook is first to go in Voser cull
Daily Mail
By SAM FLEMING
Last updated at 11:53 PM on 26th May 2009
Going: Linda Cook will leave Shell after nearly 30 years working for the firm
A management shakeup is looming at oil giant Royal Dutch Shell as anointed chief executive Peter Voser prepares to take the helm.
Shell yesterday announced the sudden departure of gas & power chief Linda Cook, who has been at the company for almost three decades. Cook will step down from the board next week and then leave her post at end of June.
The surprise decision is thought to be a prelude to wide-ranging changes at the top, as Swiss-born Voser succeeds Jeroen van der Veer as chief executive.
U.S. Cracks Down on Corporate Bribes
Among the companies currently under Justice Department review: Sun Microsystems Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC...
Shell’s N.Y. trial over Nigerian deaths delayed
NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) - A civil trial over the alleged involvement of giant oil producer Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) in the executions of protesters in Nigeria in the 1990s has been delayed until next week, a court clerk said on Tuesday.
Shell faces legal fight over alleged human rights abuse and pollution
Jeroen van der Veer's tenure as chief executive ends amid outcry over bonuses, environmental record and human rights abuses
Shell showing three into two will go
It is expected that exploration and production and gas and power will be combined into a single division. The merged business is then expected to be split in two, with an American division run by Marvin Odum, now head of Shell Oil, the US subsidiary, and the rest of the world run by Malcolm Brinded, now head of exploration and production.
Shell: the owner of the gas division goes, rumor of reorganization
Linda Cook, boss of the division gas and energy “of Shell, on 2 July 2008 in Madrid
LONDON (AFP) – Shell announced Tuesday that Linda Cook, patroness of the division gas and energy giant Anglo-Dutch oil and candidate in the general direction, leave office on 1 June, a start could be the prelude a major reorganization.
This will precede the start of the new CEO of Shell, the current finance director Peter Voser, scheduled for July 1st. The latter was preferred to Linda Cook and other candidates, including Malcolm Brindred, leader of the division “exploration and production”, to succeed Jeroen van der Veer.
Shell clears way for senior shake-up
By Ed Crooks and John ODoherty
Published: May 26 2009 09:54 | Last updated: May 26 2009 18:53
Royal Dutch Shell cleared the way for a management shake-up under its new chief executive on Tuesday as expectations mounted that Europes biggest oil company will soon unveil a wide-ranging restructuring.
Shell announced the sudden departure of Linda Cook, head of the gas and power division, by mutual agreement.
Linda Cook is stepping down from the board of Royal Dutch Shell
The news came as Shells top 200 managers gathered in Berlin for a two-day meeting, at which the company is expected to announce restructuring plans.
Shell shake-up widely rumoured; E&P and G&P tipped to merge
ft.com/energysource
May 26, 2009 5:06pm
Today weve heard a couple of rumours that the departure of Shells gas and power chief, Linda Cook, came ahead of some major changes to the companys structure.
One of those sources, both of them at Shell, said that the exploration and production unit was likely to merge with the gas and power unit.
Dow Jones also has word from a person familiar with Shells thinking that:
Voser put this restructuring plan to the Shell board, with the aim of making significant costs cuts, some months ago when he was competing to replace current Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, who retires at the end of June.
Cook’s sudden departure just the start of dramatic changes at Shell
By John Donovan
The following information has been assembled from multiple Shell insider sources.
Funeral in Berlin: Tomorrow a two day meeting commences in Berlin involving the Shell top 100.
A formal farewell to the departing Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer will take place during the first day of the meeting.
The second day has been set aside for his replacement, Peter Voser, to announce his plans said to include:
1. A major cull of senior managers/executives. More than 30% will go, rewarded with golden handshakes.
Former Shell Exec Paddy Briggs comments on Linda Cook departure
By Paddy Briggs
Cook’s departure is ego-driven. She lost out – so she walks away in a huff. But then that’s what you do when the only thing that matters is self-aggrandisement. What charecterises Shell head honchos in recent times is that it is all about self. Power, position, perks and obscenely inflated bonuses and rewards – and to hell with the business or the tradition or the history of this once great company and once respected brand. And to hell with the stakeholders as well. Suppliers, Partners, local communities, employees, pensioners and society at large are the disposable small fry in the selfish and self-centered world of Van Der Veer, Cook, Brinded and the rest.
Shell gas chief exits after losing race for top job
Linda Cook, head of gas and power of Shell, the oil giant, will leave the company after missing out in the race to become chief executive and will forfeit a "loyalty" bonus of £800,000.
Shell’s top gas executive, Linda Cook, resigns ahead of CEO change
Cook, 50, had sometimes been mentioned as a possible successor to Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, who is retiring July 1. Instead the top job went to Peter Voser, the company’s chief financial officer.
“It’s a mutual decision,” said Shell spokesman Shaun Wiggins of Cook’s departure. He said the company or Cook might elaborate further later but at the moment had nothing to add.Cook was a Shell employee for 29 years, joining the company in Houston when she was 21. She has a degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Kansas.
In a statement, Van der Veer thanked Cook and noted the company’s liquid natural gas capacity has risen by 60 percent since she took her job five years ago. As oil production declined in the same period, Shell’s total production is now almost equally split between gas and oil.
Job should go – but so should the rest of Shell’s motley crew
A year ago I called for the departure of Sir Peter Job as a non-executive director of Shell.
It has taken a full year for the media at large to realise just how unfit this man is to oversee the remuneration of Shell’s top executives. But whilst the buck undoubtedly stops on Job’s well-padded shoulders the remainder of the non-executive directors cannot escape responsibility for the debacle that is shareholders rejection of the remuneration proposals for Shell’s high-priced (very high priced!) help. Let’s name and shame them. Jorma Ollila sits at the top as non-executive Chairman. Why didn’t he call for an end to the excesses of the past and instruct Job to take public opinion in these difficult times into account?
Shell: Gas, Pwr, Renewables Chief Linda Cook To Resign June 1
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) chief of gas, power and renewable energy Linda Cook has resigned unexpectedly, and will step down as an executive director of the company effective June 1, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Shell gas boss steps down after losing CEO race
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) said Linda Cook was stepping down as head of the oil group's gas and power division, after she lost out in the race to become Shell's new chief executive.
Breaking News… Linda Cook, Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell Gas & Power Resigns…
Linda Cook, Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell Gas & Power
According to a reliable Shell insider source Linda Cook, Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell Gas & Power, is leaving Shell in just a few days time, on June 1, 2009, for sudden undisclosed reasons.
The following posting was made on our Shell Blog at 8am UK time…
Linda Cook is stepping down. Peace at last, peace at last. Now there is room for talented women instead of token women. Will she return her stay-on bonus? Very curious what bullshit story she will now come up with!
Shell on trial
(Oil giant in the dock over 1995 murder of activist who opposed environmental degradation of Niger Delta)
Royal Dutch Shell will revisit one of the darkest periods of its history tomorrow as a potentially groundbreaking court case opens in New York.
The oil giant stands accused of complicity in the 1995 execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian environmental activist.
The world’s boardrooms are watching the case, which is seen as a test of whether transnational companies owned or operating in the US can be held responsible for human rights abuses committed abroad.
Ken Saro-Wiwa: All the things he predicted have come to pass
Chris Newsom: All the things he predicted have come to pass
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
The execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues in 1995 dragged Shell and Nigeria’s leadership into a controversy from which they find it difficult to extricate themselves. Fourteen years on, the actions of both are still seen through the prism of the showdown with the Ogonis. Ogoniland has remained in limbo: no oil has been pumped since 1993, there has been little development, and mediation efforts collapsed without one meeting between Shell and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.
Shell and a particularly obscene pay deal
Last week, 59% of Shell's shareholders voted down its directors' pay packages a huge rise from the 15 or 20% that might come out against a particularly obscene pay deal just a couple of years ago.
Shell ‘played role in activist executions’
Daily Telegraph
Royal Dutch Shell is due in court on Wednesday this week to face charges of being complicit in the execution of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa 14 years ago.
By Mike Pflanz, West Africa CorrespondentLast Updated: 9:48PM BST 25 May 2009
Photo: Getty ImagesThe Anglo-Dutch petrochemicals giant will be accused of asking Nigeria’s military dictatorship to silence Mr Saro-Wiwa and other activists campaigning against ecological damage allegedly brought about by oil extraction.
Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other campaigners were executed by hanging in November 1995 after being found guilty of what were widely seen as trumped up murder charges.
If found liable, Shell would be forced to pay damages that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Shell revolt heats up
Daily Mail
City & Finance
Monday 25 May 2009 Page 60
SHAREHOLDER activists Co-operative Asset Management and PIRC have turned up the heat on directors of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, writes Geoff Foster.
They want them to hand back their bonuses and are calling for the head of Sir Peter Job, who chairs the remuneration committee.
It follows the revolt last week, which saw 60pc of investors vote down the company’s generous executive pay policy.
Shell antagonised investors by casually saying it would take the result Into consideration, indicating there would be no climb-down on its recent bonus pay-outs.
The Real Modern Pirates? MNCs Beyond the Rule of Law
The Ogoni Nine were hanged in 1995 after a show "trial" before a special military tribunal, which was based on fabricated charges and testimony from witnesses bribed by Shell.
Shell Blog Posting: The world’s biggest polluters are China, India and America, not Shell
SHELL BLOG POSTING
: Greenpeace & Friends of the Earth describe Shell “as the most polluting oil company”. Does this : (i) take into account that Shell is a larger worldwide operator than most? and (ii) take account that Shell has partners in most ventures? (i.e. is their partners % deducted from Shell’s numbers?). I bet as usual (aka Brent Spar) that Greenpeace have “expanded” their numbers to try and make a point! At the end of the day the biggest polluters by a long long way are China, India and America. What about attacking their policies rather than the usual onslaught at oil companies? – the usual reason perhaps? …… they are easier to get at (e.g. Shell Nigeria vs Nigerian Government). The likes of a left wing dross newspaper such as the Guardian really does write such nonsense. It’s a shame that again you have “expanded” your title to infer that the summit was hijacked by Shell. The Guardian states “polluters” in their title – I think you have again added more spice!! As I’ve said before our recent summers have been cold, wet and generally awful – a little warming up of the weather will be a nice thing. Hope this stirs up some response on this blog which has been rather quiet of late!!!
Shells institutionalised delusion
Another example of Shells institutionalised delusion that they are a player in the debate on the global energy future. At its most venal this was characterised by the dysfunctional and disingenuous corporate advertising of recent times that tried to suggest that Shell really cared about the energy mix and supported the development of renewable sources. Shells inevitable and predictable recent withdrawal from her Renewables business showed what a farce this was.
Shell Is Second In The Climate Greenwash Awards 2009
ASNS News
Monday, 25 May 2009
Shell was announced “second” to a Swedish energy giant – Vattenfall as the winner of the Climate Greenwash Award 2009 (dissemination of misleading information to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image) at a ceremony in Copenhagen on Saturday May 23, on the eve of the World Business Summit on Climate Change.
Some of the key determinants for success of the oil giant is its continued adverts to mislead the public about what it is doing to tackle climate change and its activities in the Niger Delta that have devastated the local environment.
Climate change summit hijacked by world’s biggest polluter Shell, critics claim
Climate change summit hijacked by biggest polluters, critics claim
Shell could help shape post-Kyoto agenda
Majority of attending firms want ‘business as usual’
Terry Macalister, guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 May 2009
A vital meeting in Copenhagen this weekend that will help shape the agenda for the most important climate change talks since the Kyoto protocol has been hijacked by some of the biggest polluters in the world, critics claimed today.
Among those attending the World Business Summit on Climate Change is Shell, which has just been named by environmentalists on the basis of new research as “the most carbon-intensive oil company in the world”.
Backlash from investors over Shell bonuses set to intensify
Shareholders vow to fight on to prevent payouts
Monday, 25 May 2009
Angry investors are demanding that Shell pays back millions of pounds of bonuses set to be awarded to the oil giants most senior executives payments in defiance of a vote at the companys annual meeting last week.
Over the weekend a number of large shareholders vowed that their increasingly militant campaign would continue, and stepped up the pressure by demanding the resignation of the chair of Shells remuneration committee, Sir Peter Job, who has been at the centre of the row over remuneration. Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer is on eight-figure remuneration with a £1m bonus on top of his £9m salary.
Investors angry over Shell bonuses
Now reports suggest institutional investors are calling for the head of Sir Peter, who waved through the payments, and for the board directors to return their windfalls.
Shareholders revolt belatedly over excessive executive salaries and bonuses
Last week, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell experienced a humiliating defeat when 60 per cent of voters refused to accept its remuneration report at the annual shareholder meeting.
Mobilisation plan by Shell Corrib gas project protesters
Nearly 4 years ago I published an article predicting a public relations disaster for Shell in Ireland in relation to the Corrib gas project being imposed against the wishes of local people gravely concerned by environmental and safety issues.
I also made the same prediction in an interview on Dublin Radio in August 2005 when I also predicted Shell would use undercover agents to gather intelligence and engage in other sinister activities against the protest group. The latter prediction has also come to pass.
Shell in the dock over Nigerian executions
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: One of the world's largest oil producers will be called to account this week over human rights abuses in Nigeria. The trial comes fourteen years after the execution of writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigeria's former military junta.
Angry shareholders ambush the top pay bandwagon
Its managing director, Alan MacDougall, says that if Shell, for instance, fails to put its house in order, ministers will need to "rewrite the corporate governance rulebook" and make majority shareholder votes at annual meetings binding on management.
Shell board told to pay back bonuses
The backlash against executive pay took a dramatic new turn this weekend when shareholder activists demanded that Royal Dutch Shell directors return their bonuses.
They also called for the resignation of Sir Peter Job, the former senior Reuters executive who chairs the energy multinational's remuneration committee.
Battle of the bonuses targets a $100m boss
Jubb last week held Sir Peter Job, head of Shell's remuneration committee, to account over a decision to agree bonuses for top bosses, even though Shell had fallen short of its targets
Wave of pay rows is an urgent wake-up call
Daily Telegraph
By Mark Kleinman
Last Updated: 9:35PM BST 23 May 2009
As if boardroom recruiters werent already finding it difficult enough to land their catches, this years round of investor pay rows looks certain to add another category to the list of City pariahs: the chairmen of remuneration committees.
He may not boast the same notoriety as the Sir Fred Goodwins of this world, but Sir Peter Job, who heads the group that decides directors pay at Shell, knows what it is like to be on the receiving end of a barrage of shareholder criticism all the same.
An Early Start in the Oil Industry
LINDA COOK: Executive director, gas and power, Royal Dutch Shell, the Netherlands
Shell bonus rebels want Job to go
May 24, 2009
Remuneration chairman under fire after bosses cash in despite poor performance
ANGRY investors in Royal Dutch Shell are this weekend calling for the head of Sir Peter Job, the director at the centre of last weeks embarrassing pay revolt at the oil group.
Shareholders think the removal of Job, former chief executive of news group Reuters, should be the first step in the shake-up of a boardroom criticised as being out of touch.
The changes are being demanded after a decision to pay £3.65m in bonuses to executives despite missing performance targets. As head of the remuneration committee, Job waved the payments through.
Shell can be sure of pumping up volume of investor anger
May 23, 2009
Patrick Hosking
Institutional investors have a new bonus quandary to wrestle with: Sir Martin Sorrell’s proposed package of up to $95million is eye-catching for all the wrong reasons.
But first they need to draw a line under the separate pay row at Shell. To recap, the board overrode the formula previously agreed to decide top executive bonuses and exercised their discretion to make an award anyway, even though the management target was missed. Shareholders this week voted 59 per cent against the remuneration report, a resounding vote of no confidence in the board’s remuneration committee.
Big shot: Investors left to wonder whether Sir Peter Job is man for the Job
But Sir Peter blundered into the minefield again as chairman of the remuneration committee at Royal Dutch Shell, which decided that performance targets previously set should be ignored and that some of the money should be paid regardless.
Royal Dutch Shell: Murder and cover-up on the high seas
SHELL, DE HALVE WAARHEID EN DE DOOFPOT…. Shell, half the truth and the cover-up….
By Alfred and John Donovan
In 1974 it was reported that a Shell employee, Leo Rapmund (36), a crewmember on the Shell tanker, ‘Capulonix’, had gone missing, presumed lost overboard.
Over two decades later Rapmund’s family was contacted by a fellow crewmember at the time of the tragedy who wanted to clear his conscience about his knowledge of what really happened. Basically he revealed that Leo Rapmund had been murdered and there were many eyewitnesses to the crime.
The family claim that when they contacted Shell in 1995 with this alarming news, Shell and its lawyers (the most prestigious and expensive law firm in the Netherlands, De Braauw, Blackstone & Westbroek) denied any knowledge or responsibility and treated them in a disgusting and arrogant manner. All responsibility and accountability were rejected. The family was fobbed-off like a bunch of nagging children.
In 2008, the family contacted the acclaimed Dutch investigative crime reporter Peter R. de Vries who has his own Emmy Award winning TV programme. De Vries has been involved in a number of high profile cases including that of Natalee Holloway, the American student who mysteriously disappeared in 2005 while on a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean Island of Aruba.
De Vries approached Shell HQ in The Hague on 23 February 2009 and spoke with a senior Shell Public Relations official, Herman Kievits. His response was described as arrogant, at arms length and mainly on the lines that ‘we know nothing’. The same holds true for the lawyers.
On 26 April 2009 Peter R. de Vries presented the case in his TV programme. Afterwards a number of viewers contacted Shell and expressed disgust at these cover-ups by the oil company.
The viewers who reacted towards Shell, all received a rather clumsy standard reaction with many half-truths. The facts however are totally different and in his unique manner Peter R. de Vries dissects all the nonsense by Shell and provides substantial evidence on what really happened. He tracked down a dozen witnesses of the murder. They all confirmed that Leo Rapmund had been in a fight on board and was shoved overboard. He managed to just hang on to the railing but his assailant had kicked his hands so long that he had to let go and disappeared forever in the waves. This act was unanimously described as ‘murder’. The witnesses were greatly surprised that they never have been formally heard nor summoned in a court case.
De Vries also makes mincemeat of all the statements by Shell and detailed evidence is provided on his website. He exposes Shell as a bunch of liars. In the end Shell even had to admit in a letter to him that they ‘did not know’ what happened to the assailant and why he had not been charged. Shell even did not know whether the man had been fired or not. That in itself is strange: on a tanker of Shell a Shell employee is literally kicked overboard by another Shell employee, but Shell subsequently never informs how all this has been handled in a legal matter.
UNFIT FOR PURPOSE?: RICHARD WISEMAN, CHIEF ETHICS AND COMPLIANCE OFFICER, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
Below is an article supplied to Shell in advance of publication. The relevant email correspondence with Richard Wiseman, the Shell official who is the subject of the article is printed immediately below it. It contains his comments and our response.
By Alfred and John Donovan
This is the first in a series of articles in which we provide overwhelming evidence why Richard Wiseman (above) is an unfit person to be the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
From Shell’s standpoint, we are sure Wiseman did a good job as General Counsel and later as Legal Director of Shell UK. We understand from our sources that he is generally liked and respected by colleagues. He is loyal to the company and Shell executive directors. We acknowledge that Mr Wiseman has many admirable qualities.
Hearing chairman ‘ignored’ key question
THE CHAIRMAN of an An Bord Pleanála hearing was yesterday accused of obfuscation and failing to answer questions about issues relating to its jurisdiction over ongoing works by Shell at the landfall site of the Corrib gas project at Glengad.
Protester leaves Corrib hearing
Edward Moran was the third local resident to leave the Belmullet hearing after telling the board that Shell had commenced work on the onshore section at Glengad, which was above the high water mark, encroaching on the boards jurisdiction.