The former chief executive of Shell has become a senior adviser on energy transition investments at KKR.
Ben van Beurden, 65, joined the American private equity firm on a part-time basis in January in his first corporate role since he fully left Europe’s biggest oil and gas group company last year. He is advising on its new global climate strategy in its infrastructure investment unit.
Van Beurden stepped down as chief executive of Shell at the end of 2022 after 39 years at the company and continued working as a full-time adviser to Shell’s board until the end of June.
The Dutchman, who became chief executive in January 2014, led Shell through a period that included the £47 billion takeover of BG Group, two oil price crashes, its first dividend cut since the Second World War and the loss of its “Royal Dutch” name. He also set targets for Shell to cut its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, but faced pressure to move more quickly and calls from activist investors to break up Shell. His total pay for nine years as chief executive exceeded £86 million.
Van Beurden told the Financial Times that while energy companies such as Shell were transforming the supply of energy, KKR could invest in related areas that had the potential to change demand, ranging from vehicle electrification, hydrogen consumption and battery systems.
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“There are quite a few things you could do in that space that are easier and more logical to do with private capital than it is with public capital,” he said. “The more I get exposed to private equity, the more that I believe that this is a really crucial part of the overall societal puzzle to get right.”
KKR has created a climate investment business within its $59 billion infrastructure investment unit and has put more than $15 billion into energy transition-related investments. They include a $750 million investment in Zenobe, a British electric vehicle charging network.
Brandon Freiman, head of North American infrastructure at KKR, said van Beurden had experience in shifting a global oil compnay towards a more sustainable business. “He was the leader in driving Shell’s strategic transformation,” he told the Financial Times. “He really led Shell’s work during his tenure as CEO on transitioning it across oil and gas, renewables, sustainable aviation and transportation.”
