£521,000 pay-off for Shell boss

Oil giant Shell today said it had awarded a £521,945 (€746,200) pay-off to its former finance chief.

The group said Judy Boynton would receive the severance package following her departure from the group on December 31.

Ms Boynton resigned from her role as group chief financial officer of Shell in April following the company’s reserves crisis.

She was among three senior executives of the group to quit including former chairman Philip Watts and exploration and production chief Walter van de Vijver.

In September, the group paid £82.7m (€118.5m) in fines to regulators in the UK and US after investigations found that it violated market rules by cutting its reserves by 4.47 billion barrels. Shell told the market in January that it had overbooked its oil and gas reserves by 20%.

Shell said Ms Boynton was departing by mutual agreement “to pursue other career opportunities” after having stayed with the group for the rest of last year in an advisory capacity.

The greater part of her remuneration was related to the performance of the company and weighted to the long term.

Ms Boynton retains rights to various existing stock options and restricted share grants in accordance with plan rules.

But Shell said she was not entitled to any of her 2003 long term incentive plan award shares as performance targets had not been met.

Chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said the company appreciated Ms Boynton’s contributions during the last nine months and the prior three years.

“We wish her success in her future endeavours,” he said.