The Long View: Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell

Wael Sawan (0:06)

While a lot of people talk about an energy transition, we're really much more in the space of energy edition, at least for the coming decade. This is an edition game, it is not a substitution game yet.

Eric Veiel (0:17)

Welcome back to The Angle from T. Rowe Price, a podcast for curious investors. Just a reminder that outside of the US and Australia, this podcast is for investment professionals only. Today, the long view comes to you from our London offices, where I'm joined by Wael Sawan, Chief Executive Officer of Shell. We'll talk about his journey to the top of one of the world's largest energy companies, the decisions he's made since taking the helm, and how he is navigating the competing demands for energy security, investment, shareholder returns, and the energy transition.

Wael, welcome to our London studios. Thank you so much.

I'd love to start with kind of your background. You've got a really interesting history, sort of born in Beirut just before the Civil War, and then grew up in Dubai, I believe, and then eventually to Canada. How did all of that sort of global travel as a younger person influence you in the professional that you've become?

Wael Sawan (1:15)

Yeah, I mean, I think, look, you know, a lot of it was not by choice. A lot of it was forced, whether it was my dad's work, it was an expatriate working at the time for 3M, or of course, circumstances in Lebanon, in particular through the early 80s, when we had tried to come back, but barely lasted for a year.

And then beyond that, of course, just the career choices I took.

I'd say the biggest influences you learn how to be able to sort of almost blend into different societies. And it opened up my minds, and I think I continue to hold that to different people's perspectives. It's really easy coming from a household where, you know, my parents were trying to hold on to our identity with all the moves, to be firm, to be static almost in the way you think about things. But all these moves, I think, force you to integrate, to listen, to adapt. And I do think that's one of the things that Lebanese are particularly known for. In addition to resilience, it's the ability to adapt where they go. And I've been very lucky in my career to have had multiple sort of different locations where I get exposed to cultures, to people, and to learn from that. I think it's also given me that resilience that I mentioned, because every time you move, and I see it more now with my kids, you have to build that resilience to be able to set yourself up for the new context that you're in. But I do think it makes us better people.

Eric Veiel (2:44)

Any of those different locations that really sort of was the most formative for you, or that in some way added something to your resiliency that is more than any of the others?

Wael Sawan (2:57)

Look, I think each one of them brought something specific. I think it was more the events that brought the resiliency more so than the locations.

The few examples, I mean, I remember distinctly living in the Netherlands when my wife and my son, who had just been born, my eldest, who was six months at the time, got stuck in the crossfire of Hezbollah and Israel at the time. And airports closed. I had to figure out a way to get through into Beirut. They were getting into a car. Lights had to be off because they were hitting cars at night. And it's those moments where you recognize, it puts things into perspective.

Eric Veiel (3:39)

What really matters.

Wael Sawan (3:40)

What really matters. And it also grounds the relationships with family and what matters to you when you have that extra minute in the day. Where do you want to spend it? And who do you want to call up and check on?

I think from a professional perspective, resilience came from, you know, tragedies. I had just been given the opportunity to lead our Qatari business. It was in 2012 And at the time, a couple of weeks later, we had an industrial accident on one of our facilities and two colleagues died. And I had to sort of face up to the wives and to the kids, not just those colleagues, but others to be able to say, if we bring this plant on, can you assure me that everyone's going to be safe? Figuring out as a leader how you are able to look people in the eye and to be able to fulfill what they expect of you and what you demand of yourself, I think those are the moments where, at least I felt, my character was built and where my resilience was developed.