Man with goggles and hard hat in red uniform pearl

Who we are

Shell employs around 6,000 people in the UK working across a range of activities to help provide the energy we all need. Find out here about our business and function leaders who make up the UK Country Co-ordination Team.

Sinead Lynch

Sinead Lynch

Chair Shell UK Limited

Until joining Shell Sinead was EVP Safety and Sustainability, responsible for the leadership and integration of BG Group’s Health, Safety & Asset Integrity, Security, Environment & Climate Change, Social Performance & Human Rights, Government & Policy Affairs and Communications disciplines.

Sinead worked for BG since 1993, holding a wide variety of roles across business segments and disciplines. She began her career as a Geophysicist specialising in seismic processing and modelling before taking on roles in Exploration and Development Geophysics. From 2001, Sinead worked as an Economist in the UK assets before moving into a series of senior Commercial and Business Development roles.

From 2005-2007, she was VP Commercial for BG Nigeria, leading the company’s upstream entry. From 2008-2011, Sinead worked as Area Commercial Manager for BG’s Africa Middle East and Asia assets before taking on the role of Head of Investment Appraisal for BG. She then spent two years in Bangkok as Asset General Manager for the Thailand asset.

When the proposed combination between Shell and BG Group was announced in April 2015, Sinead took on the additional responsibility of heading the Integration Planning Team on the BG side and supported the ongoing transition of BG into Shell. She joined Shell in the role of UK Country Chair on September 1 2016.

Sinead is married with two young sons.

Max Brouwers

Max Brouwers

Vice President Exploration Europe, Russia & Caspian
Royal Dutch Shell plc

Max Brouwers grew up in and around Maastricht, in the South of The Netherlands. He has a degree in Geology from the University of Utrecht and an MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management. He has worked his 20 year career in 3 continents, within Shell.

Max is currently Shell’s Vice President for Europe, Russia and Caspian within Exploration. He started with Shell in 1996 as a seismic interpreter in London. Since then, he has held a variety of exploration and commercial roles, including Head of Global Exploration Strategy & Planning and New Business Coordinator. Has worked in a variety of exploration roles within Latin America and most recently, held the position of Vice President Exploration Latin America, based in Rio de Janeiro.

During these roles, he has been focused on setting up new offshore Shell ventures in frontier settings, mitigating safety and non-technical risks and creating value by maturing discoveries for handover to development, as well as pursuing organic growth opportunities. He was also involved in the Enterprise Oil and BG acquisitions, as well as the successful Libra bid.

Outside work, he likes to spend time with his wife and two children. He is an avid road cyclists and loves riding in the mountains.

Alexandra Elson

Alexandra Elson

General Manager External Relations UK, Ireland, South Africa & Nordics

Alex joined Shell in 2003 as Environmental and Social Project Finance Lead on the Sakhalin liquefied natural gas project in Russia and then other project finance deals. She went on to lead the Group Carbon policy team for several years before taking a senior stakeholder management role in the ER Corporate team in 2015. In this capacity, Alex delivered strategic communications and engagement on several key topics, including Shell’s Net Carbon Footprint ambition and the energy transition. She played a leading role in establishing and implementing the multi-stakeholder Global Methane Guiding Principles initiative.

Before joining Shell, Alex worked internationally in several sustainability roles in governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations, including the UK’s Department for International Development, United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment.

Outside of work, Alex enjoys spending time with her husband and two children.

Nigel Hobson

Nigel hobson - Vice President Global Operations for the Trading and Supply Business

Vice President Global Operations for the Trading and Supply Business

Nigel Hobson is currently Vice President Global Operations for the Trading and Supply Business based in London. This follows two recent assignments as VP Supply & Distribution for Europe and Africa based in London and with Shell’s Chemicals business as VP Global Operations & HSSE based in the Netherlands.

Nigel joined Shell in 2005 as Consultancy Manager for the Downstream Management Consultancy which included prime responsibility for projects in Manufacturing, Supply & Distribution well suited to his diverse experience gained across many Downstream businesses. Following graduation as a Chemical Engineer from Exeter University previous leadership roles with ExxonMobil include Refinery Operations, Crude Oil Trading, Supply Operations and Commercial Sales.

Nigel is a Fellow of The Institution of Chemical Engineers; He is married with three teenage daughters and in any free time enjoys outdoor pursuits including sailing and fishing.

Monika Khullar

Trui hebbelinck - Vice President Human Resources

Vice President Human Resources UK

Monika joined Shell in 2001 and in her current role, Monika is responsible for leading the integrated people agenda for Shell companies in the UK. Prior to this role, Monika spent five years in Downstream Global Commercial where she was the Global HR Lead for Customer Operations, an organisation of 2000 staff delivering the customer experience for our Downstream Marketing B2C and B2B customers. Between 2010 and 2013, Monika was the Vice President HR for Shell Business Operations spanning India, Malaysia, Philippines and Poland and prior to this, Monika held global generalist, HR Consultancy and Change roles supporting different businesses, corporate functions and Group HR.

Before Shell, Monika worked at Cable & Wireless for 7 years where she was the HR Manager for the European Operations and held positions covering HR Policy, Projects, Mergers, Acquisitions & Outsourcing.

Monika holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Masters in Human Resource Management.

Monika is married and in her spare time enjoys running, entertaining and mentoring.

Roger Hunter

Roger Hunter

Vice President Electric Mobility

Roger joined Shell in 1998 and, in his current role, leads the global E-Mobility team. He is responsible for merging two existing units: E-Mobility and Digital. The aim is to help drive greater integrated value by merging the emerging Connected, Autonomous, Shared and digital customer-centric E-Mobility teams internally to embrace future trends. The team continues to develop new business and drive opportunities to this end. Most importantly he looks forward working more closely with recently acquired companies Greenlots and NewMotion, driving the future mobility agenda for respective businesses and for Shell future mobility as a whole.

Before his current role, Roger lead Shell’s Alternative Energy and Fuels Strategy team focusing on the future of transport: looking at future mobility transition, second generation biofuels, hydrogen mobility and other new technologies.

Earlier in his career, Roger held various commercial and technical leadership roles at Shell, including Downstream New Business Development, Fuel Supply Chain Strategy and Upstream Engineering. He was also a council member for the UK Petroleum Industry Association (UKPIA) and currently sits on the board of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) in the UK.

Roger lives in Hertfordshire, with his wife and two daughters. He holds a Masters in Electronic and Electric Engineering from Birmingham University.

Steve Phimister

Steve Phimister - Upstream Director UK & Ireland

Steve Phimister – Vice President and Upstream Director, Shell UK

Steve currently leads Shell’s Upstream business in the UK, a major operated business with a diverse workforce of 1500 people engaged in exploration, production, growth investments and decommissioning activities across the offshore North Sea and onshore gas processing. Steve is an active Board member of the UK Oil & Gas industry body (OGUK) and the Oil & Gas Regulator (OGA) North Sea Transition Forum, as well as leading numerous Government-Industry Taskforces. He is also a core member of the UK Government-Industry Energy Transition Group and the Scottish Government-Industry Group for Carbon Capture & Storage. In addition, Steve works with the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce in support of economic projects to develop Aberdeen City and Shire. He has led Shell UK through a period of substantial change, driving improved operational performance and resetting the company’s strategy and the portfolio and organisation to be competitive through the Energy Transition. He has a varied background in technical, commercial and management roles working with Shell across Europe, Australia, Asia and the Americas. Steve has a degree in Chemical & Mineral Engineering from the University of Birmingham and is a member of several Engineering Institutes. He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and serves on the Board of a number of energy-related businesses. Steve is married with two daughters and is located in Aberdeen.

Bruce Taylor

Bruce Taylor

Bruce Taylor, UK and Ireland HSE Manager

Bruce joined Shell in 1985 as a Shell Expro Technician trainee and subsequently spent several years offshore on Cormorant Alpha as Operator and Technician. From 1996 to 2007 he worked as Onshore Support Supervisor and Team Leader for the Mature Assets.

In 2007, Bruce returned to Cormorant Alpha as Offshore Installation Manager concluding that assignment with a handover to the new operator. In January 2009, Bruce was appointed to Brunei Shell Petroleum as Head of Operations for the development team, a role that covered all stages from project initiation through to post implementation review.

He subsequently was selected as Operations Manager for Brunei’s East Asset for a further 3 years before returning to the UK to take up his current role in June 2015.

Robbert van Rutten

Robbert van Rutten

Robbert van Rutten - Vice President and Global CIO, Shell Downstream

Robbert van Rutten became the Shell Downstream CIO & Vice President on April 1st 2020. In his previous role, Robbert was the CIO for Global Functions & Information Risk Management, he has been a member of the RDS IT Executive leadership team since 2016.

He has nearly 30 years experience with Shell in both Upstream and Downstream worked in many of the different functions including Finance, Commercial, Technology and IT.

In his recent roles Robbert led the Global Functions IT organisation and oversaw Information Risks and Cyber Security, ensuring maximum business value delivery through the execution of a broad digital agenda for the Corporate Functions.

Robbert has a background in Business Economics and holds an MBA from Tilburg University.

Robbert lives in The Netherlands with his wife Sandra and they are the proud parents of Tess and Mick, some of his interests are travelling, skiing, spending time with friends and family, and you can find him at the local football club at Saturday’s coaching his son

Madeline Whitaker

Madeline Whitaker - Head of UK Government Relations

Head of UK Government Relations

Madeline joined Shell from BG Group in October 2016 to lead the UK Energy Transition Programme and the international climate policy brief in Government Relations.

Madeline joined BG in 2007 and over the years held a number of roles in policy and corporate affairs, including as President of BG Canada where she was responsible for early stage development and non-technical risk in the Prince Rupert LNG project. She returned to the UK to work for the new Chief Executive Helge Lund as Chief of Staff in February 2015.

Prior to BG, Madeline spent ten years in Brussels, working in the European Parliament, European Commission and latterly as a public affairs consultant, advising multinational clients on lobbying and reputation management strategies.

Madeline lives with her husband and two young children in Oxfordshire. She enjoys seeking out wildlife and the natural world in the UK and beyond.

Bernie Williamson

Bernie Williamson is Shell’s UK Retail General Manager

Bernie Williamson is Shell’s UK Retail General Manager, responsible for our retail business in the UK.

Bernie has a background in retail with UK leadership experience with various food and convenience retailers including Safeway (now Morrisons), Sainsbury’s and T&S Stores (formerly the largest convenience retailer in the UK).

She joined Shell after leading the BG Contracting and Procurement integration in 2016, and then led Shell’s Retail Contracting and Procurement team for Europe and South Africa. During her time at BG, Bernie held roles in Upstream - including Asset CP Manager for UK and Norway – and as Head of Functional Excellence.

Bernie is married with two children. In her spare time, she loves spending time with family and friends, and outdoor activities such as mountain biking, skiing and gardening.