By Carola Hoyos in London and Michael Steen in Amsterdam
Published: June 9 2009 03:00 | Last updated: June 9 2009 03:00
The outgoing chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, who was the focus of a shareholder revolt over pay at the multinational oil company, has called for reform of how executives are rewarded.
Jeroen van der Veer, who steps down this month, faced criticism from shareholders for receiving a 1.35m ($1.87m) bonus from an incentive scheme even though the company failed to meet performance targets.
Anger over Shell’s bonuses sparked one of the biggest investor rebellions over directors’ pay when 59 per cent of the company’s shareholders last month voted down its remuneration report.
Apart from the bonus, Mr van der Veer also received a 58 per cent pay rise in 2008 to 10.3m.
But Mr van der Veer has now conceded that varying pay levels would not have affected his own performance. “You have to realise: if I had been paid 50 per cent more, I would not have done it better. If I had been paid 50 per cent less, then I would not have done it worse,” he told the Financial Times at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
Mr van der Veer said companies needed to respond to rising concerns about executive pay.
He did not specify how executive pay structures should be reformed, but said: “It is clear to me that people are very concerned about executive remuneration and good companies should take that on board.”
The admission on pay by Mr van der Veer prompted a sceptical response from VEB, the Dutch shareholders’ association.
“If that’s the case why does he not tell the supervisory board, ‘I won’t accept the bonus shares that have been awarded in this scheme?’ ” VEB’s chairman said.
Business as usual?
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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.
