Posts Tagged ‘Paddy Briggs’

Posting by former Shell Executive Paddy Briggs on the article “Shell defends continued focus on fossil fuel-paper“: Mar 2nd, 2010 at 11:20 am

A SHELL INTERNAL EMAIL DATED 25 JUNE 2007 SUPPLIED TO JOHN DONOVAN UNDER DATA PROTECTION ACT LAW

From:
Sent: 25 June 2007 13:57
To:
Subject: RE: DONOVAN – WEBSITE

FYI, xxxxxs latest contribution – I think he should choose his friends more carefully….

In the absence of “Tell Shell” I think that this is possibly the best forum for those of us who care about Shell and have informed opinions about the company to share with others. The Donovans perfume (subsequently corrected!) a very useful function and, whilst I don’t always agree with them, I do admire them and certainly do not question their motives or their integrity.

EMAIL ENDS

Shell redacted the name of the person who made the above posting on the “DONOVAN – WEBSITE” – royaldutchshelllplc.com. It was Mr. Paddy Briggs, the distinguished former Shell executive. In fact, we have never met or even spoken to Paddy.

This was his corrected posting.

In the absence of “Tell Shell” I think that this is possibly the best forum for those of us who care about Shell and have informed opinions about the company to share with others. The Donovans perform a very useful function and, whilst I don’t always agree with them, I do admire them and certainly do not question their motives or their integrity.

We don’t know why Shell took issue bearing in mind the ringing endorsement of the website by a Shell official just a few weeks earlier (email dated 20 March 2007)…

John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK / Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass, belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchsellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out.

We are grateful to Paddy Briggs and Shell for these kind comments.

It has come to our attention that former Shell executive Paddy Briggs (above) has been elected to serve the thirty-three thousand Shell pensioners in the UK as a Trustee of the Shell Contributory Pension Fund for four years commencing January 2010. In addition to the elected members, the Board of Trustees has seven Shell appointees, including UK country chairman James Smith and Clive Mather, the Chairman of the Board.

The manifesto on which Paddy Briggs was elected was:

“I joined Shell Mex and B.P. in 1964 and retired from Shell in 2002 having worked in Shell UK Ltd, Shell International and operating companies in The Netherlands, Hong Kong and Dubai. The Shell that most of us once worked for is long gone – as the “reserves” scandal and the recent furore over top executive remuneration have shown. Such events, coupled with the deteriorating financial position of many pensioners (which was exacerbated this year by a derisory 0.9% annual pension increase) illustrate the extent of the changes in Shell and confirm the urgent need for a strong defence of SCPF member interests by the one elected MNT Trustee directors. I was “First reserve” in the elections in 2007 and hope to go one better this time around. If elected I will do my upmost robustly to represent the interests of the Pensioner constituency and all other beneficiaries of the fund.”

We will quite understand that with Paddy concentrating on his new duties, he is probably unlikely to have the time to continue his insightful, candid and often entertaining contributions on this website. And he may also feel that it would be inappropriate to be an outspoken critic of Shell at a time when he has to work closely with senior Shell personnel in order to protect the interests of the members of the Pension Fund.  Over the years  Paddy’s  plain speaking and knowledge in his published articles, and his thoughtful comments posted on our Shell Blog, may have helped to persuade Shell UK pensioners that he is exactly the right person to represent them at this time. We wish him well.

Quite frankly, we have been surprised that Shell did not retain Paddy as a brand consultant given his continuing interest in Shell and invaluable marketing expertise. At least his fellow Shell pensioners will now benefit from the outstanding qualities which made him such a successful executive during his long career with Shell. And we are always here should Paddy feel that he needs a public platform again!

Richard Wiseman, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer (Photo supplied by him for display on this website)

EMAIL MESSAGE SENT BY JOHN DONOVAN TO OVER 400 SENIOR SHELL EXECUTIVES

Congratulations!

I am writing to offer our best wishes on your appointment/new title, as announced on our website royaldutchshellplc.com within the lists of Shell senior executive appointments we published on 22 June and 3 August.

The unauthorised publication of leaked Shell confidential information on our site has become a news event in its own right, regularly reported by The Wall Street Journal and other news organisations.

In a front page lead story in the Financial Times, our site was credited with breaking news of the restructuring plans of Peter Voser. Our role was acknowledged in many other news stories including, for example, the London Evening Standard which reported:

“Meanwhile, staff flocked to Royaldutchshell.com to attack the group’s management.”

Reuters also acknowledged “The Royaldutchshellplc.com website was the first to reveal news of the planned restructuring.”

Our insider sources know that we will protect anonymity.  If you ever feel the need to supply information, please contact me and I will advise on setting up secure communications.

SHELL BLOG

Comments posted by Shell employees on our “Shell Blog” have been quoted in many news articles.

If you want to keep in touch with uncensored grassroots opinion of Shell stakeholders, I would strongly recommend regular visits to the facility, as the comments are often insightful and reflect all shades of opinion. Why not post your own views? You can do so anonymously. What do you think about Shell executives being forced to reapply for their jobs? What do you make of the callous comment by Peter Voser that asking staff to reapply had been “an interesting exercise“?

You are also welcome to supply Shell related articles for unedited publication under your own name. We have published numerous articles on this basis from eminent Shell retirees, Shell executive Paddy Briggs, Shell International HSE Group Auditor, Bill Campbell, and Royal Dutch Shell Global Chief Petroleum Engineer, Iain Percival.

The Shell Blog has replaced “Tell Shell”, the official Shell Internet forum for open and lively debate, “temporarily suspended” (permanently) after we exposed the secret censorship of postings considered too open and too lively.

Shell General Counsel Richard Wiseman (now RDS Plc Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer) confirmed to us in an email dated 11 November 2005 Shell’s censorship of Tell Shell postings.

In the same email, Mr Wiseman stated:

The extraordinary tolerance shown to your internet activities ought to demonstrate better than anything else the fact that we are uninterested in, and unmoved by, your current activities

Richard Wiseman subsequently, at his own initiative, sent us an updated photograph of himself to display on our website.

In a further development revealing the truth, as opposed to the spin, we found out from documents obtained under the Data Protection Act that Shell set up a team in an attempt to counter our activities. The relevant internal email exposes the hostility towards us and the fact that it is is held in check by fear of reprisal on our part. If you find this difficult to believe, read the email.

So much for being uninterested and unmoved!

SAKHALIN-2

General David Patton resigned as Project Director of SEIC after we obtained a leaked email from him to his troops, which ended up as a major story in the FT newspaper. It was not however just a question of Shell being once again humiliated and its reputation damaged. Shell also lost a ton of money – literally billions of dollars – as a direct result of our intervention in the Sakhalin-2 project. The Russian government minister Oleg Mitvol publicly acknowledged our pivotal role in supplying leaked Shell internal email correspondence which turned out to be the only evidence he had to support a threatened $10 billion lawsuit against Shell. The evidence, which included high level Shell internal emails, cost Shell its majority stake in the venture.

THE FUTURE

Given the number of disgruntled employees certain to be generated from the latest transformation process, we anticipate even more leaks and revelations in coming months.

We look forward to our continued role as the unofficial Shell website for Shell employees and will contact you with news of interesting developments from time to time.

In the meantime, we wish you well in your new appointment.

Best Regards,

John Donovan

By Paddy Briggs

Time to reflect on the integrity of Jorma Ollila (above), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. In his time as Chairman it seems, if we judge from the actions of Shell’s new CEO Peter Voser, he has allowed Shell to become an over-staffed, unfocused, top heavy bureaucracy. A company that requires urgent and invasive surgery. A Company that no longer has confidence in its staff at the top to the extent that it makes them re-apply for jobs…and so on.

But also in Ollila’s time he has acquiesced to an unparalleled escalation in senior executive remuneration. His previous CEO and the other Board members have been paid an order of magnitude more than their predecessors. Isn’t this a reward for failure? And isn’t Ollila culpable for allowing it to happen under his watch?

Either Shell does need the drastic surgery that Voser is now instituting or it doesn’t. If it does Ollila should resign for getting Shell into its current crisis. If it doesn’t he should resign for having appointed a man as CEO who is hell-bent on destroying a once great company.

By Paddy Briggs

Cook’s departure is ego-driven. She lost out – so she walks away in a huff. But then that’s what you do when the only thing that matters is self-aggrandisement. What charecterises Shell head honchos in recent times is that it is all about self. Power, position, perks and obscenely inflated bonuses and rewards – and to hell with the business or the tradition or the history of this once great company and once respected brand. And to hell with the stakeholders as well. Suppliers, Partners, local communities, employees, pensioners and society at large are the disposable small fry in the selfish and self-centered world of Van Der Veer, Cook, Brinded and the rest.

Comment by former Shell Exec Paddy Briggs on: “Climate change summit hijacked by world’s biggest polluter Shell, critics claim”

Paddy Briggs

on May 25th, 2009 at 9:36 am 

Given the likely horror in London and The Hague and the equal dismay in Brussels we can expect some swift defensive manoeuvres to be soon under discussion. Prime amongst these has to be the oft trumpeted merger of Shell and BP into one seriously big and European managed corporation.

But having said all this, you are right again that the SEC now themselves should be doing some major ‘mea culpa’ for not overseeing the real criminals in the finance world. Our beloved leader of the past, the borne again christian Philippus Watts, would have made a great investment banker. And he will still occupy a seat next to the likes of bishop Mugabe in his afterlife. And it will be hot there!

Since you have kindly recently answered questions raised by me on other subjects, I feel sure you will want to deal with this matter which is of great concern to Shell pensioners. You might also wish to comment on the related posting by former Shell exec Mr Paddy Briggs.