Beat Hess

Responsibilities

• Legal Services
• Intellectual Property Services
• Compliance

Background

Beat Hess was appointed Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2003. In this post, he has ultimate responsibility for the Shell global legal function and advises the Shell group management on all legal matters of group-wide importance. The Shell legal function comprises some 1,200 staff, of which around 720 are lawyers and some 80 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 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 its General Counsel and Company Secretary.

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 Nestlé S.A., the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company, with its headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, and with sales of some 110 billion Swiss Francs (2008).

Personal

Beat was born in 1949 in Lucerne, Switzerland. He is married to Liny, and they have a daughter and a son.