Shell's finance chief to step down

Shell’s finance director Jessica Uhl is to step down after five years in the role, the oil giant said on Tuesday.

Uhl, who has been with Shell for 17 years, was a key figure in the recent overhaul of company’s share and tax structure, including moving the corporate headquarters to London from 2022 and dropping Royal Dutch from its name.

As part of the overhaul, which was overwhelmingly backed by shareholders at the end of 2021, it was agreed that the finance director and chief executive Ben van Beurden would relocate to London.

However, Shell said that due to family circumstances, a long-term relocation "was not suitable" for Uhl, a US citizen. She will therefore step down on 31 March 2022 before leaving the group at the end of June.

Uhl said: "It has been an immense privilege to contribute to Shell’s leadership as we sought to reposition Shell for the future. I look forward to seeing what Shell achieves."

She is being replaced by Sinead Gorman, a British national and another long-term employee. Gorman joined Shell in 1999 and has held a variety of finance roles, including her current position, executive vice president for finance in the upstream business.

She will join the executive committee and the board of directors when she takes up the role on 1 April.

Chair Andrew MacKenzie said: "[Sinead] combines broad finance, trading, new business development and capital projects experience with a deep knowledge of Shell and a strong commercial and external focus.

"The board is immensely grateful to Jessica for her tremendous contribution to the company over many years, but particularly as chief financial officer."

The changes came a day after Shell became the latest energy major to announce it would exit it Russian assets, including its interest in the controversial Nord Stream II pipeline, following the invasion of Ukraine.

As at 1145 GMT, shares in Shell were off 2% at 1,935.0p in London.