Shell says search for new CEO under way

THE hunt for Royal Dutch Shell’s next chief executive is under way, its chairman said, after CEO Peter Voser made what could be his last appearance at the oil group’s annual shareholder meeting.

Mr Voser announced his surprise decision three weeks ago to step down in the first half of 2014, before his 56th birthday, and less than five years into the role.

“The process has started,” Shell chairman Jorma Ollila said after the meeting when asked about the succession plan.

Mr Ollila chairs the three-man nomination and succession committee that will choose Mr Voser’s replacement.

Mr Voser has been a pillar of Shell’s new-found stability since he rejoined the company as finance director in October 2004 as part of a wholesale clear-out of disgraced former top management following a reserves accounting scandal.

Employees of the AngloDutch group, which traditionally appoints its top executives from within the company, believe an import is unlikely to secure the top job, but Mr Voser is only the second person to hold the CEO role under a simplified corporate structure introduced in 2005.

The current finance director, Simon Henry, is regarded as a potential frontrunner, along with Marvin Odum, the company’s head of upstream operations in the Americas.

Mr Henry has a mathematics and accounting background even though, like Mr Odum, he joined the company as an engineer.

Andrew Brown, who became head of international upstream last year, could be a candidate too, as could director of projects and technology Matthias Bichsel.