Former Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has joined alternative asset and private equity investor KKR as a senior advisor for energy transition investments, according to a report by the Financial Times, confirmed by ESG Today. In his new part-time role, van Beruden will advise KKR’s recently launched climate strategy.
Van Beurden takes on the new role following 39 years at Shell, including 9 years as CEO, until he stepped down early last year. While serving as CEO, van Beurden oversaw Shell’s announcement in 2020 of a commitment to achieve net zero in its operations by 2050, and the 2021 launch by the energy giant of its “Powering Progress” strategy, detailing how it will achieve its target to be a net-zero energy business by 2050 across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, with initiatives including investing in renewable and clean energy solutions.
Shell also faced pressure from investors and environmental groups to accelerate its climate transition while van Beurden was at the helm, including a lawsuit resulting in a Dutch court ordering the company to slash its emissions by 45% by 2030, and holding the company responsible for Scope 3 emissions from the company’s value chain, such as customers’ use of its fuel products.
The appointment follows the identification by KKR in December of decarbonization, and the large scale “brown-to-green” transition of asset-heavy sectors in particular, as a key “mega-theme” driving investment opportunities. The firm made a series of climate-focused and sector decarbonization moves, including the launch in August 2023 of a global climate strategy team in its infrastructure unit, which the firm said marked an expansion on its focus on climate investing, and has recently announced several large-scale energy transition infrastructure-related investments.
Commenting on the new appointment in the FT article, Brandon Freiman, Head of North American infrastructure at KKR, said:
“He was the leader in driving Shell’s strategic transformation. He really led Shell’s work during his tenure as CEO on transitioning it across oil and gas, renewables, sustainable aviation and transportation.”