Shell said on Thursday that Wael Sawan, the company’s head of integrated gas and renewables, will succeed Ben van Beurden as the company’s chief executive officer. Van Beurden will be leaving his position at the company at the end of this year.
According to Shell, Sawan’s appointment will begin on January 1, while van Beurden will continue to serve as an advisor to the board of directors until June 30 of this year.
This month, Reuters reported that Shell had selected four candidates, one of them was Sawan, to replace van Beurden, who is stepping down from his position as CEO after almost ten years in the role.
One source had said that Sawan, a Canadian national who had previously headed Shell’s oil and gas production business and who now oversees Shell’s growth into low carbon energies as well as its giant gas business, was seen as the front-runner to succeed van Beurden. Sawan currently oversees both the growth of Shell’s low carbon energies business as well as its giant gas business.
Sawan is quoted as saying in a release, “We will be disciplined and value oriented, as we work with our customers and partners to offer the dependable, cheap, and greener energy the world needs.”
