30 October 2014, News Wires – Shell has named Charles ‘Chad’ Holliday as its new chairman starting next year as current chair Jorma Ollila’s long tenure draws to a close.
Former chief executive of US chemicals giant DuPont Holliday will assume the new role immediately after Shell’s next annual general meeting, the Anglo-Dutch supermajor said on Thursday after it delivered a strong set of third-quarter results.
Holliday is currently chairman of Shell’s corporate social responsibility committee and a member of its remuneration committee, having originally been elected as a non-executive director in September 2010.
He served as chief executive of DuPont from 1998 to 2009, taking the role of chairman in 1999.
He is also a member of the board at Bank of America, serving as chairman until September this year.
Holliday is also a director at Deere & Co, the US machinery giant best known for its John Deere brand of tractors.
Shell revealed in June that Ollila was to step down after nine years as chairman, with Egon Zehnder International said to have been appointed to hunt a successor.
Holliday said of his appointment on Thursday: “I am honoured to be appointed chairman of this great company, and I look forward to working with Ben van Beurden and the whole board to deliver the strategy.”
Asked during a results briefing about Shell’s decision to appoint an American chairman for the first time, Shell chief financial officer Simon Henry told journalists that the Anglo-Dutch supermajor no longer operated its historical practice of alternating Dutch and British company leaders.
“I’m delighted to say nationality is no longer an issue, we take the best man or woman for the job,” he said.
– Upstream
