Jeroen van der Veer
Jeroen van der Veer became a Non-Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc in July 2009, after retiring as Chief Executive.
He joined Shell in 1971 and worked in manufacturing and marketing in the Netherlands, Curaçao and the United Kingdom. In 1984, he returned to Shell Nederland as manager of Corporate Planning, and then of the Pernis refinery in Rotterdam.
After an assignment coordinating Shell businesses in Africa and Canada, he became a Managing Director of Shell Nederland in 1992. He led major reorganisations and a $2 billion upgrade of the Pernis refinery.
In 1995, he moved to the United States as President and Chief Executive of the Shell Chemical Company. He was appointed a Group Managing Director in 1997. Chemicals remained one of his areas of responsibility and he oversaw the worldwide restructuring of the business. He was named Chief Executive in 2004 and led Shell through major change, simplifying governance and organization, while clarifying accountabilities.
In August 2009 Jeroen was appointed Vice-Chairman of a group of experts who will draw up recommendations for a new Strategic Concept for NATO.
He is a Non-Executive Director (Vice-Chairman) of Unilever (which includes Unilever N.V., Unilever plc and United Holdings Ltd.), Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ING, and a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal Philips Electronics. He was World President of the Society of Chemical Industry from 2002 to 2004.
Jeroen was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1947. He has two degrees: one in mechanical engineering from Delft University and another in economics from Rotterdam University. In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria.
He was appointed by the Queen of the Netherlands as a Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau in June 2009. Also in 2009 he became an honorary Citizen of Singapore.
Jeroen is married to Mariette and has three daughters. On his travels he enjoys visiting museums, reflecting his interest in human progress. He keeps fit by running and playing golf with a 16 handicap. He twice skated the 200-kilometre ‘Elfstedentocht’ (11 cities marathon) in the Netherlands.
