Q: Do you like Mr. Watts personally? A: It was difficult to like Phil. He was not a guy you go for a beer with. …he was still running with that chip on his shoulder… He was a guy from the wrong side of the tracks.
Candid (some might say indiscreet) testimony of Simon Henry about the disgraced Shell Group Chairman Sir Philip Watts (shown right).
Extracts from the sworn testimony of Simon Henry to the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 19 October 2004 in Washington D.C.
Mr Henry is currently Chief Financial Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Q: With the benefit of hindsight, were there ever instances where you believed Mr. Watts provided the market with incomplete or inaccurate information?
A: With the benefit of hindsight, he answered a lot of questions about Gorgon, and with the benefit of hindsight, they could have been answered differently.
Q: Do you like Mr. Watts personally?
A: Quite an interesting question. I have difficulty engaging with Phil. To like somebody generally, you have to engage and share. I mentioned earlier, he was not an individual who shared confidences easily.
Q: Do you respect Mr. Watts?
A: Yes, I have respect for his achievements. I have a lot of respect for the way he dealt with people, he was so focused on the process of getting things right. He seemed to do the right thing. He was extraordinarily determined to achieve things. It was difficult to like Phil. He was not a guy you go for a beer with. He was also somebody who had achieved a lot coming from a background that he believed did not give him any advantages, and he carried that with him. He could have left that behind when he was about 30, but he was still running with that chip on his shoulder or however you might see it. He was a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He was the only guy around the top table, Brit, who was not Oxford or Cambridge. He carried it. I could relate to that. I have a lot of sympathy for the position he is in, because genuinely, in my opinion, another guy would have left.
Mr Henry also said that Watts is not a numbers man. The same comment he made about Walter van de Vijver. Could explain a lot.
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.
