Shell Taps Nokia CEO as Chairman

Royal Dutch Shell, seeking to restore investor confidence after overstating oil and gas reserves for three years, said Thursday that it had picked Nokia’s Jorma Ollila as chairman after an eight-month search.

Ollila, Nokia’s chairman and chief executive, will succeed Aad Jacobs in the non-executive role at The Hague-based Shell on June 1, Shell said. Ollila, 54, who turned Nokia into the world’s biggest mobile phone company, this week said he would step down as CEO the same day.

Shell ousted former Chairman Philip Watts and two other senior executives, paid a record fine in Britain and lost its top-tier credit rating after announcing the restatement of its oil and gas reserves last year. Ollila’s role will include advising CEO Jeroen van der Veer and communicating with the company’s shareholders, Shell said.

Cost overruns and delays at such Shell projects as its Sakhalin oil and gas venture in Russia have also spurred concern about the company’s project management and internal control, according to analysts and investors.

Shell had been looking for a replacement for Jacobs after merging its British and Dutch parent companies last month and had indicated it might break with tradition by choosing a successor from outside. The company, formerly Royal Dutch/Shell Group, last week posted lower-than-expected profit for the second quarter as production fell.