By Ben Sharples
June 4 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europes largest oil company by market value, said Ann Pickard will succeed Russell Caplan as chairman of its Australian operations on Aug. 1.
Caplan, 64, who has been chairman since Feb. 1, 2006, is retiring after 42 years with Shell, the Hague-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. Pickard will also continue to be executive vice president for oil and gas exploration and production in the country, Shell said.
Shell Australias business includes two refineries, the Prelude floating liquefied natural gas project, a stake in the Chevron Corp.-led Gorgon LNG venture, and a proposed coal-seam gas to LNG plant in Queensland state. Perth-based Pickard, 54, took up her Australian role in March following her role as Shells regional executive vice president for Africa.
Australia is a key growth region for Shell as the company shifts its focus toward gas, Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said in March. Shell said it will spend more than $100 billion globally by 2014 and expects the share of gas as a proportion of output to increase to 52 percent in 2012.
Australia is the biggest growth area weve got, Pickard said last month. She was previously based in Lagos, Nigeria, for about four years.
–Editors: John Viljoen, Jane Lee.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell in Singapore at [email protected]
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.
