Incoming Shell CEO cuts thousands of jobs

AMSTERDAM – Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Wednesday unveiled a major overhaul of its businesses and management that will affect thousands of jobs, part of a shake up ordered by the incoming chief executive.

Peter Voser, who takes the CEO job on July 1, said the changes would “increase accountability in the company and improve Shell’s performance on delivering new projects.”

Moves to combine the company’s three production arms by product into two by geography will “reduce complexity, corporate overheads and costs, and result in faster decision-making,” Voser said in a statement.

Shell wouldn’t specify how many of the company’s 102,000 jobs would be lost. A spokesman said the 2,000 employees at Shell’s headquarters in The Hague would be strongly affected.

“Thousands of staff will be impacted,” said spokesman Shaun Wiggins, referring to both job cuts and employees being asked to change location.

AP