Monday, February 29, 2016
Woodside Petroleum Ltd. announced Monday that its Board has appointed Ann Pickard as a non-executive director effective Feb. 29. Pickard joins Woodside as an independent director.
Woodside Chairman Michael Chaney said that Pickard had significant international business experience.
“The directors are delighted that we have been able to attract a person of Ms Pickard’s background and experience to the company’s Board,” Chaney said.
On Feb. 1 Pickard retired from Royal Dutch Shell plc, where she held numerous positions during her 15-year tenure with the company. Before her retirement from Shell, Pickard served as executive vice president, Arctic and was responsible for Shell’s Arctic exploration efforts. This followed three years as Executive Vice President of Shell’s Exploration and Production business and Country Chair of Shell in Australia, and five years as Executive Vice President, Africa. Pickard joined Shell in 2000 after an 11-year tenure with Mobil prior to its merger with Exxon.
Pickard is a director of KBR Inc. She is also a member of Chief Executive Women, the Global Agenda Council on the Arctic for the World Economic Forum, the Advisory Council of the Eurasia Foundation, and Catalyst. Pickard was a director of Westpac Banking Corporation between 2011 and 2014.
Pickard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Angela Macdonald-Smith: Energy Reporter: The Sydney Morning Herald
Former Shell Australia chairwoman Ann Pickard, once famously branded “the bravest woman in oil”, has revived her ties with the local petroleum industry, taking up a non-executive director role at Woodside Petroleum.
Woodside chairman Michael Chaney pointed to the international business experience of Ms Pickard, who took responsibility for Shell’s exploration efforts in the Arctic after she left Australia in 2013.
She previously headed up Shell’s operations in Nigeria, where she earned a reputation for delivering in difficult environments.
During her years at Shell Australia, Ms Pickard was instrumental in progressing the oil major’s floating liquefied natural gas projects.
On her departure in May 2013, she named the progress made towards a floating LNG project at the Browse venture, in which Shell is operator Woodside’s biggest partner, as one of her key achievements.
However, she is joining the Woodside board at a time when the future of the Browse project has been thrown into uncertainty amid low oil prices and a reluctance among LNG buyers to lock themselves into new long-term purchase commitments.
Ms Pickard retired from Shell on February 1. She takes up the Woodside director role effective from Monday.
She is also a director of petroleum industry services giant KBR. Ms Pickard, who was a director of Westpac Banking Corporation from 2011 until 2014, holds several other roles, including a seat on the Advisory Council of the Eurasia Foundation.
“The directors are delighted that we have been able to attract a person of Ms Pickard’s background and experience to the company’s board,” Mr Chaney said.
Shell holds a 13.6 per cent stake in Woodside but has made it clear the holding is not a core investment, reinforcing market expectations it may be within the $US30 billion of assets the oil major is targeting for divestment over the next three years after its BG Group takeover.
Ms Pickard joins Woodside at a time when Shell’s influence within the board is set to decline. One of the two Shell-nominated directors, Andrew Jamieson, will retire at the 2016 annual shareholder meeting.
Ms Pickard was given the title of “the bravest woman in oil” by Fortune magazine during her time in Nigeria.
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.
