Shell appoints new chairman of board of directors

Royal Dutch Shell on March 11 announced Andrew Mackenzie, a former BHP CEO and BP veteran, as its next chairman, Report informs referring to Reuters.

Mackenzie will help lead the energy company through a major shift away from oil and gas to low-carbon energy.

Mackenzie will succeed Charles Holliday who will step down on May 18 after serving six years in the role.

Mackenzie, who left BHP Group last year after serving as CEO of the mining group from 2013 to 2019, joined Shell’s board in October 2020.

Before that he worked at Rio Tinto for three years following a 22-year career in BP, where he held senior roles in oil and gas exploration, research and development and chemicals.

Mackenzie, a British national born in 1956, will take over as the Anglo-Dutch company undergoes a major overhaul focused on low-carbon businesses and power trading and reducing its greenhouse emissions by mid-century.

He will also likely lead in the coming years the search for a successor to CEO Ben van Beurden, who has been in office since 2014.

His appointment follows a year which due to the pandemic prompted Shell to cut its dividend for the first time since World War II.

In February, Royal Dutch Shell announced it had reached its peak in oil production. For the fourth quarter of 2020, Royal Dutch Shell posted a loss of $4.01 billion, compared with a profit of $965 million in the same period of 2019.