15 April 2015, News Wires – Oil industry veteran Catherine Hughes has quit the board of Norwegian player Statoil after reportedly marrying Andrew Gould, chairman of Shell takeover target, BG Group.
Former long-time Schlumberger executive Hughes has left the Statoil board with immediate effect “in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest following a recent change of circumstances,” the state-controlled giant said on Wednesday.
UK newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Hughes and Gould, a former chief executive of oil services behemoth Schlumberger, tied the knot in recent weeks in Calgary, Canada.
Hughes was elected to Statoil’s board as a shareholder representative in June 2012 at the same time that former ConocoPhillips chief executive Jim Mulva also assumed the same post.
A Canadian/French citizen, Hughes worked at Calgary-based Nexen from 2009 to 2013, initially as vice president of operational services, technology & HR before moving on to executive vice president for all the company’s activities outside of Canada. Nexen is now owned by China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
From 2005 to 2009 Hughes worked at Canadian independent Husky Oil as vice president of exploration & production and vice president of oil sands.
Before her stints at Husky and Nexen, Hughes spent 20 years at Schlumberger, holdings key positions in Nigeria, Italy, France, UK, US and Canada.
She is also an independent director at Precision Drilling.
Gould was chief executive of Schlumberger from 2003 until 2011, serving as chairman until 2012. He is currently chairman of BG, the board of which has recommended a near $70 billion offer for the company from Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell.
– Upstream