Posts Tagged ‘Jorma Ollila’

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 

JUNE 25, 2009, 4:03 A.M. ET

By GUY CHAZAN

BP PLC said Thursday that it appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, chief executive of Swedish telecommunications-equipment maker Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, as its chairman, finally bringing to an end the protracted search for a replacement for current Chairman Peter Sutherland.

AFP/Getty Images 

Carl-Henric Svanberg

The move mirrors the appointment of Jorma Ollila, then CEO of Finnish mobile-handset maker Nokia, as chairman of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP’s rival, in August 2005.

It shows how eager western majors are to position themselves as technology companies rather than straight-forward oil-and-gas producers, especially at a time when Big Oil is under pressure to help fight global warming by investing in green energy and high-tech solutions to climate change such as carbon capture and storage.

But the choice of someone from outside the energy industry, with no experience of running a major oil-and-gas company could raise some shareholders’ eyebrows.

The process of finding a replacement for Mr. Sutherland suffered a setback last year when BP shareholders came out against one of the leading candidates, Paul Skinner, then chairman of miner Rio Tinto PLC, because of his support for Rio’s $19.5 billion fund-raising deal with Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd.

Mr. Svanberg, 57, who is also chairman of Sony Ericsson and a nonexecutive director of Melker Schörling AB, will join the BP board as chairman-designate and a nonexecutive director on Sept. 1, 2009, the company said in a statement. He will succeed Mr. Sutherland as chairman on Jan. 1, 2010.

BP CEO Tony Hayward called Mr. Svanberg “a businessman of international stature who is recognized for his transformation of Ericsson.”

“Our shared views on many aspects of global business give me great confidence that we will work very effectively together on the next phase of BP’s progress,” he said in a statement.

Since Mr. Hayward took over as CEO of BP in 2007, he has embarked on a major restructuring of the company with the aim of trimming costs and improving safety and efficiency. “We are coming to the end of chapter one, restoring the fortunes and financial performance of BP,” Mr. Hayward said. “Carl-Henric is coming in as we embark on chapter two … creating a 21st century company.”

Ericsson said Mr. Svanberg will be succeeded by Finance Chief and Executive Vice President Hans Vestberg. Mr. Svanberg will remain on the Ericsson Board. Major shareholders InvestorAB and Industrivarden AB have said they want him to remain as a board member long-term.

—James Herron and Dominic Chopping contributed to this article.Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com

Scandinavia is one of the most secularised corners of the world and by reputation one of the most rational. So I was astonished last week to hear the Finnish chairman of Royal Dutch Shell (and of Nokia) Jorma Ollila, say that the world’s energy crisis would not be solved unless everyone turned off the lights when they left an empty room.

Job will also go on the road to meet critics who are demanding his resignation in the wake of the vote.

The Times

May 23, 2009

Patrick Hosking

Shell said that it had already agreed to some changes in its pay arrangements before the defeat on Tuesday but would consider wider reforms.

Shell awarded 78,889 shares to Van der Veer worth about 1.34 million euros ($1.8 million) while Chief Executive Officer- designate Peter Voser got 39,656 shares under the same program. Shell paid out shares worth 4.2 million euros to its five directors, David Williams, a spokesman based in The Hague, said in a phone interview today.

The decision by Royal Dutch Shell’s remuneration committee to overrule its own pay policy for top executives – for the second year running – looks terrible. Like Xstrata, whose shareholders on Tuesday lodged a significant protest against the mining company’s remuneration package, Shell has put itself in the line of fire. Where did they go wrong? Simple: the committee exercised its discretion twice in two years to grant shares that executives did not, under a strict interpretation of Shell’s own rules, deserve, and it did so without going back to shareholders.

Jorma Ollila, chairman of Nokia and Royal Dutch Shell, says it can help win back respect as long as it does not look like an afterthought. “The best thing is if you don’t do it after the facts but that it is an ongoing feeling,” he says. “Philanthropy is one way [to regain public trust] but it needs to be part and parcel of what you do every day.”

Outrage is felt not just by the general public but by fellow business leaders. Jorma Ollila, chairman of Nokia and Royal Dutch Shell, said: “It doesn’t help any of us when we have such public instances of excess and even wrongdoing.”

Mr. Ollila demonstrates his pragmatism defending Shell’s recent decision to stop investing in wind and solar energy and focus generally on biofuels as its approach to climate change measures.