“A persistent reputational risk.” — Shell internal memo, 2007
In the oil-stained annals of corporate history, few duels have burned as long — or as publicly — as that between Royal Dutch Shell and a retired British marketing man named John Donovan.
What began in the 1990s as a routine commercial dispute between Shell and Donovan’s family business, Don Marketing, would metastasize into one of the most sustained reputational headaches any multinational has ever faced.
Three decades later, Donovan’s website — RoyalDutchShellPLC.com — functions like a digital conscience for a company trying to forget its own. It is a trove of Shell’s internal embarrassments: whistleblower leaks, courtroom revelations, safety scandals, and corporate PR hypocrisy, preserved with forensic precision.
The Charges
Groningen’s long-suffering renters, resident kids, and unmarried partners have just been upgraded from second-class victims to full members of the Earthquake Club. The Mining Damage Institute Groningen (IMG) now treats 
