Beat Hess
Legal Director
Responsibilities
- Legal Services
- Intellectual Property Services
- Compliance
Background
Beat Hess became Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2003. In this post, he has ultimate responsibility for the Shell legal function and advises the Shell Group management on all legal matters of group-wide importance. The Shell legal function comprises some 1,200 persons, of which approximately 730 are lawyers and some 70 are intellectual property professionals. The Shell compliance office is also part of the legal function.
Effective October 1, 2007, Beat was appointed a member of the Shell Group Executive Committee.
Beat started his legal career as a clerk and legal adviser to various courts and government agencies in his native Switzerland. Before joining Shell in 2003, he was employed for 26 years by the ABB Group of companies – for some 15 years as their General Counsel and Company Secretary. ABB is a global leader in power and automation technologies.
Beat has Law degrees from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Miami, USA. He also holds a Law Doctorate (PhD) from the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and is admitted to the Swiss Bar.
Beat is a member of the Board of Directors of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, a worldwide specialty chemicals company, headquartered in Basle, Switzerland, with sales of some 6.4 billion Swiss Francs.
Personal
Beat was born in 1949 in Lucerne, Switzerland. He is married to Liny and they have a daughter and a son.
Related links
Meeting the Legal Challenges in the Energy Industry
Speech given by Beat Hess, Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc, at at a program sponsored by the Directors Roundtable and The National Law Journal, 24 January 2007 in New York City.
