DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK): Shell finance director walks away with $1m: “Shell, which is battling to restore its credibility in the wake of the scandal, said Judy Boynton would receive the severance package after her departure from the group on December 31.” (ShellNews.net) 8 Jan 05
By Christopher Hope (Filed: 08/01/2005)
Payouts given to Shell bosses who have lost their jobs over the oil and gas giant's reserves scandal topped £4m yesterday with the news that the finance director in charge at the time has quit with a $1m (£522,000) pay-off.
Shell, which is battling to restore its credibility in the wake of the scandal, said Judy Boynton would receive the severance package after her departure from the group on December 31.
The sum was the minimum Shell could pay her as Shell said that "Ms Boynton had a pre-determined severance agreement of $1,000,000" which was set out in the company's 2003 reports and accounts.
Ms Boynton was widely expected to leave since resigning from her role as group chief financial officer of Shell in April after the company's reserves crisis. It is not known if she is going to another job.
Ms Boynton retains rights to various existing stock options and restricted share grants in accordance with plan rules. But she is not entitled to any of her 2003 long-term incentive plan award shares as performance targets had not been met.
Shell said Ms Boynton was leaving by mutual agreement "to pursue other career opportunities" after staying with the group for the rest of last year in an advisory capacity. Ms Boynton was among three senior executives of the group to quit, including former chairman Sir Philip Watts and exploration and production chief Walter van de Vijver.
Sir Philip received £1m when he left, while Mr Van der Vijver received £2.5m, taking the total handed to the three executives to £4.02m since the crisis started.
Shell eventually said that it had overstated its proven oil and gas by 23pc or 4.47 billion barrels. However, the company said in October that a further 900m barrels were now questionable after a third check of its 14 billion proved barrels was 55pc complete. The final result is due shortly.
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