First woman Marjane Van Loon leaves Shell

Eminent Dame Marjane van Loon says goodbye as President of Shell Holland after seven years. Her position will be taken up on April 1 by Frans Everts, who has worked at Shell for 33 years in various capacities around the world.

Van Loon, 57, announced her departure in February, saying she would enjoy things other than work. Van Loon has worked for Shell for 34 years and experienced a number of turbulent years as head of the Dutch branch of the oil and gas group. In 2018, for example, there was political outrage over an agreement between Shell and the Department of Taxation and Customs over the payment of dividend tax. Shell’s head office has also moved to the UK. This made the group entirely British on paper.

As a shareholder of NAM, Shell was also responsible for years for the extraction of gas in Groningen, which was later found to cause earthquakes. On WNL Op Zondag, Van Loon recently said that the Groningen gas field should be shut down completely this year. The company is now also paying for damage repairs and strengthening of homes in the quake zone.

new course

Under Van Loon’s leadership, Shell says it was also the first major group to support the climate agreement. But in 2021, Milieudefensie won a lawsuit against the group over not reducing CO2 emissions sufficiently. Milieudefensie is therefore hoping for a “new Shell Nederland cycle” with Evert as the big man. In his new role, he has stated that he wants to continue working on the energy transition.