BEN VAN BEURDEN: Chief executive, Royal Dutch Shell
Just a year into the job, the 57-year-old Dutchman struck a legacy-defining deal. April’s £47bn cash-and-share takeover of smaller rival BG was hailed as a bold move to enliven the be- leaguered energy industry.
With each fall in the price of crude oil, though, the daring swoop starts to look more hare-brained.
When van Beurden, a mechanical engineer and Shell lifer, unveiled his blockbuster bid, crude traded at $57 a barrel. Shell based the hefty 50% premium for BG’s shares on oil rising to $67 next year and $90 by 2018.
With the price now less than £ $40 a barrel, those goals look wildly optimistic- unrealistic, even. What is not up for debate is the Dutchman’s fortitude.
From Then Sunday Times Focus Section Page 5: 13 December 2015
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
