Ben van Beurden is the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc. Van Beurden joined Shell in 1983, after graduating with a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.[1]
Royal Dutch Shell plc (LSE: RDSA, RDSB), commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.[2] Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport Trading, it is the second largest company in the world, in terms of revenue,[1] and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".
Shell is also one of the world's most valuable companies.[3] As of January, 2013 the largest shareholder is Capital Research Global Investors with 9.85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6.89%.[4] Shell topped the 2013Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies.[5] Royal Dutch Shell revenue was equal to 84% of the Netherlands's $555.8 billion GDP at the time.[6]
Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It has minorrenewable energy activities in the form of biofuels[7] and wind[8] It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide.[9] Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses.[10]