Employee Profiles

I am Fuels Marketing Manager for a part of the Retail East Zone business. I am based in Australia, but manage the Fuels Marketing functions in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Philippines and Thailand. I have a Brand Manager in each country as part of my team. When I originally joined Shell, I managed only Australia, but this has expanded over the past 3 and a half years.

My role is to manage the development of fuels, which could be differentiated, premium fuels to more environmentally friendly fuels to investigating opportunities for biofuels. With my team, I develop marketing programs and launches of new products. We need to have a close understanding of our customers and to develop offerings aligned with their needs. We also closely monitor market and competitor trends and activity. It is our job to work closely with operations team to ensure the product offerings on our retail sites fit customer, safety and legislative requirements. There is a great deal of work required with other business units, such as manufacturing, supply and distribution.

There are so many things I like about my job! I like that I have been given a high level of responsibility and, along with that, a high degree of autonomy to deliver on my targets without being checked every day. Along with this, I like the flexibility of being able to manage where and when I work to suit my travel, work and personal requirements. I very much enjoy that I am working in Fuels and that I have been able to gain some knowledge in technical and development areas, in addition to having managed some very exciting launches of products.

I think it is fantastic that I get to manage across so many countries, each of which has its own distinct culture, way of working, and issues facing each business. It takes some time to learn how to operate in countries in which you are not living and, naturally, it takes some time for those countries to accept you as part of their teams and trust that you understand their business. Once that has been established, it is rewarding to be able to be part of so many operating units and teams. I have also been lucky to have experience in working with Global teams based in London to develop global marketing materials for use in my operating units and in forming plans for new areas of our businesses.

I thoroughly enjoy working with all Shell people. My view from prior to joining has only been reinforced. Shell people have respect for each other, are very intelligent, and get along well, which makes for a great and interesting working environment. It is a dynamic working environment and there is never a shortage of opportunities to take on new challenges or tasks, which means I am always developing professionally.

There is a lot of passion from people in what they are doing. I am taken by their enthusiasm about their business and the plans for the future. There is a great sense of breaking new ground in the Retail business and being part of something exciting. I am very impressed by the high respect with which people were treated and the extraordinarily high intelligence of everyone in the business. Every individual’s contribution is valued.