By John Donovan
Interesting to read that seven years after the departure of Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (right) as chairman of the mining giant Anglo American, the company is in difficulties.
See Dow Jones news article: Anglo American to Downsize Further After Steep Loss.
Apparently the troubled company is in the throes of “an aggressive restructuring.”
Reminiscent in some respects of the state of affairs at Shell during and after the tenure of Sir Mark as Group Chairman.
The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2004 “How Shell’s Move To Revamp Culture Ended in Scandal.“
Extracts
Long known for its sober geological expertise and conservative image, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant in the 1990s embraced New Age management.
This cultural revolution ultimately led Shell into one of the worst crises in its history as the company turned to accounting maneuvers to hide its failures in finding energy.
Presumably a reference to the “value creation teams” set up at Shell under Moody-Stuart. The teams lived up to their label by basically creating hydrocarbon reserves which did not exist.
The massive fraud led directly led to class action litigation and the eventual forced merger of Shell Transport & Trading Co Plc and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company into the new company, Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Shame someone forgot to register the .com domain name.
Sir Mark let the transformation process at Shell get completely out of hand, embracing the New Age nonsense and in doing so, laid the foundation for disaster.
Best analogy that springs to mind is a delayed action torpedo. In his case, companies are sunk between three and seven years after he retires as chairman.
Sir Mark is now a board member at Saudi Aramco. Despite its vast reserves, the state owned oil giant is facing uncertainty over its future (and especially so with him on board).
It remains to be seen if Sir Mark, bearing in my his dubious corporate track record, will be an asset or a liability.
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.
