The Independent: Shell moves to plug holes in management board

By Michael Harrison

19 May 2004

Royal Dutch/Shell, the crisis-torn oil major, moved yesterday to strengthen its board by appointing the head of its Canadian operations to its committee of managing directors.

Linda Cook, the president and chief executive of Shell Canada, will join the board at the beginning of August, assuming responsibility for Shell's gas and power operations.

She is the first new appointment to Shell's committee of managing directors since the chairman Sir Philip Watts, the head of exploration and production Walter van de Vijver and the finance director Judy Boynton were sacked over the reserves misbooking scandal.

Ms Cook, 46, is American and has spent all her working life at Shell, joining the company in 1980 after graduating from the University of Kansas. Her career has included stints in Houston, California, The Hague and London, where she was chief executive of Shell gas and power for three years from 2000 until leaving to head the Canadian operations.

She is also a board director of the US defence and aerospace group Boeing, which suffered its own corporate scandal last year over the hiring of ex-Pentagon staff and the theft of confidential information.

Her appointment increases the membership of the committee of managing directors to four. Prior to the reserves scandal there were six members. Malcolm Brinded, who temporarily took on responsibility on the committee for gas and power, will now concentrate on exploration and production.

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