Alumna, trustee, CEO Elsenhans to present dean’s lecture Nov. 24

Alumna,
trustee, CEO Elsenhans to present dean’s lecture Nov.
24

BY LOREN WILKERSON
Special to the Rice News

Lynn Laverty
Elsenhans ’78, president and chief executive officer,
Shell Oil Products U.S., and president, Shell Oil Company,
Shell U.S. Country Chair, will discuss the “Challenges
of Global Leadership” at the Dean’s Lecture Series
scheduled for Monday, Nov. 24, at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate
School of Management.

Elsenhans’
lecture will begin at 10:15 a.m. in the Shell Oil Foundation
Auditorium. A reception in the Anderson Family Commons at
the Jones School will follow the lecture.

Elsenhans received
her bachelor of arts degree in mathematical sciences from
Rice in 1978 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1980.

Elsenhans joined
Shell Oil Company in 1980 as an economic analyst in the
planning function for oil and chemical products in Houston.
In 1982, she transferred to the Deer Park Manufacturing
Complex as a senior engineer in the refinery and in 1984
was named as a process manager in the chemical plant.

Following the
assignments at Deer Park, Elsenhans held positions in oil
products and chemical products business management, marketing
and planning. She has held senior positions with Shell in
the United States as manager of natural gas in exploration
and production, manager of lubricants in oil products, general
manager of business transformation, president and CEO of
Shell Deer Park Refining Company and vice president of refining
for Equilon Enterprises LLC.

In July 1999,
Elsenhans was named president of Shell Oil Products East,
based in Singapore. In this role, she was responsible for
Shell’s refining and marketing business in Asia and
the Middle East. In July 2002, she was named director of
strategic planning, sustainable development and external
affairs of Shell International Limited, London.

Elsenhans was
named to her current position in June 2003. She is also
a member of the Shell Oil Company Board and president of
Shell Petroleum Inc. (SPI). She sits on the board of directors
for SPI as well as Motiva, a joint venture of Shell and
Saudi Refining Inc., which refines and markets petroleum
products on the Gulf Coast and the eastern part of the United
States, and the Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership Committee,
a joint venture of Shell and PMI Norteamerica, S.A. de C.V.,
a subsidiary of Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

A Houstonian,
Elsenhans is a member of the Rice University Board of Trustees
and the Council of Overseers for the Jones School. Elsenhans
is also on the boards of the Greater Houston Partnership,
the National Urban League and The American Petroleum Institute.

The Dean’s
Lecture Series brings prominent business leaders to talk
with students at formal presentations, followed by informal
receptions. For more information on the Dean’s Lecture
Series, visit <www.jonesgsm.rice.edu/jonesgsm/Dean’s_Lecture_Series.asp>.

— Loren
Wilkerson is assistant director of public relations at the
Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.