Jessica Uhl and Ben van Beurden talk before the annual general meeting of Shell
(Picture: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw)The respected finance chief who oversaw Shell’s historic relocation to London is leaving the company after almost two decades, having decided moving her own family to the UK long-term is “not sustainable”.
Mother-of-three Jessica Uhl, who has held finance roles in London, Houston and The Hague since joining the oil super-major from Enron in 2004, will step down as CFO on March 31.
Uhl will be replaced by Sinead Gorman, a civil engineer by background who joined Shell in 1999 and steps up from her role as head of finance of its global upstream business. She will be based in London full-time.
Uhl, 54, had been expected to accompany CEO Ben van Beurden and a handful of other senior executives in moving to London full-time when the shift from the Netherlands to London was announced in November.
Shell said today: “Jessica was a key architect of strategic changes, including the simplification of the company’s share structure and the relocation of the corporate HQ, along with the roles of chief executive officer and chief financial officer, from The Netherlands to the UK.
“However, due to family circumstances a long-term relocation to the UK is not sustainable, and therefore she will step down from her role.”
Uhl said: “I look forward to seeing what Shell achieves, knowing that the company is in very good hands.”
The surprise announcement came as investors took Shell’s decision to cut ties with Kremlin-controlled Gazprom in their stride.
Van Beurden last night said the decision to offload its 27.5% stake in Gazprom’s offshore gas project Sakhalin-2 and to sell its 10% stake in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was taken “with conviction” in response to President Putin’s “senseless act of military aggression”.
Unlike rival BP, which suffered an initial 7.5% hit to its share price after announcing its $25 billion exit from Russia, investors adhered to the old stockbrokers’ motto: “never sell Shell”.
Shares were down just 1.3% to 1940p, as the blue-chip index dipped 1% on a downbeat morning’s trading.
Shell abandoned its Anglo-Dutch dual-listing and “Royal Dutch” title in a major corporate shake-up last year and moved its HQ and tax base to London.
Van Beurden described the move as “a very sad moment” but the complex structure was a “handicap” on its ability to “move fast and do new things”.
** French energy firm Total today condemned Moscow’s military aggression in Ukraine but stopped sort of following BP and Shell’s lead.
The oil major, which has a 19.4% stake in Russian LNG firm Novatek, said it would “no longer provide capital for new projects”.
