Ceri Powell

Ceri Michele Powell (born July 1963) is a Welsh geologist and businesswoman who worked for Royal Dutch Shell from 1990 to 2020.

Education The daughter of a manager at Milford Haven oil refinery (and chairman of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority), Powell grew up in Pembrokeshire and trained as a geologist. Inspired by the example of Dame May Ogilvie Gordon, one of the first female geologists, Powell studied for a BSc in geology at the University of Liverpool and then pursued a PhD (awarded in 1990), sponsored by Shell, at Cardiff University, studying inversion tectonics and the reactivation of extensional faults as Compressional thrusts. She was then made VP of Global Strategy for Shell until late 2009. accountable for production of over 300,000boe/day, 4000 staff with 18,000 business partners, under the guidance of the chairman of BSP, Crown Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah.

In August 2020, Powell stepped down as MD of BSP and country chair after 31 years of an international career.

Other roles Powell sat for three years on the United Nations advisory board for Sustainable Energy for All, chaired by the UN Secretary General. ranked number 21 in 2014, and has been a strong advocate of increasing female involvement in industry.

In November 2014 Powell was awarded an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University for services to geoscience and in 2015 she was made an honorary fellow at her alma mater, Cardiff University.

In April 2014, Powell was appointed as a non-executive director of Carillion serving on the audit, remuneration, nomination and business integrity committees, and chairing the sustainability committee in 2015. Following the company's 2018 liquidation, in January 2021 the Insolvency Service said it would seek to ban eight former Carillion directors, including Powell, from holding senior boardroom positions. However, a trial due to start on 16 October 2023 was cancelled after the Insolvency Service decided it was not in the public interest to pursue Powell and four others.

Personal life Powell is married to Ajay Shah, another senior energy industry gas marketing professional, and, after living in The Hague and Brunei she now lives in Singapore. She also has a UK base in the Cotswolds. Her non-work interests include skiing, scuba diving, yoga, and the connection between geology and gardening, having gained her Royal Horticultural Society accreditation in 2013.