Wael Sawan, head of the oil giant’s integrated gas and renewables division, is one of four short-listed candidates, sources say
LONDON — Shell has shortlisted four candidates to succeed chief executive Ben van Beurden who is preparing to step down next year after nearly a decade at the helm of the giant energy firm, two company sources told Reuters.
Recently appointed chief financial officer Sinead Gorman and Zoe Yujnovich, head of upstream, are also seen as possible successors, the sources said.
The succession plans were accelerated after Mackenzie took office as chairman in May last year.
The Dutchman, who joined Shell in 1983 and became CEO in January 2014, has yet to decide on an exact departure date but is expected to leave next year, the sources said.
Van Beurden has focused in recent months on Shell’s historic headquarters relocation from The Hague to London at the start of 2022 as well as the energy crisis that has gripped the world in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
Van Beurden seized on the downturn to acquire rival BG Group for US$53 billion in 2016, catapulting Shell into a major gas producer and the world’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader.
While integrating the acquisition and reshaping the company and in the wake of a landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement, van Beurden also faced growing investor pressure to come up with a strategy to slash the company’s carbon emissions and shift to renewables.
But any successor is like to only feel more pressure to accelerate the company’s energy transition and emissions reduction targets.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse in energy demand in early 2020, van Beurden and his board decided to cut Shell’s dividend, the world’s largest at the time at around US$15 billion, for the first time since World War Two.
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