Kjetil Malkenes Hovland
OSLO--Norway's Statoil ASA said Wednesday that Oystein Loseth, a
former chief executive of Swedish utility Vattenfall, has been
recommended as the oil giant's new chairman.
If elected, Mr. Loseth would succeed Svein Rennemo, who's
chaired the company since 2008 and has said he won't stand for
reelection this year. The election takes place at Statoil's
corporate assembly in June, and would take effect from July 1.
Mr. Loseth, a Norwegian, became a board member of Statoil in
October, following a five-year stint as chief executive of the
biggest Nordic utility, Sweden's Vattenfall. He is a former chief
executive of Dutch energy company Nuon, which was acquired by
Vattenfall in 2009, and has also been a manager at Norwegian
utility Statkraft and at Statoil.
Statoil said Mr. Loseth "has significant top managerial
experience in the energy sector, with particular expertise and
experience from the European energy market."
The company's nomination committee also recommended as deputy
chairman Roy Franklin, who's served on Statoil's board before, and
has broad leadership experience from the oil and gas industry,
including BP PLC.
Norwegian law requires listed companies to have at least 40%
female board members, and the company said it was looking for
another woman to replace Catherine Hughes, who resigned from the
board in April.
"The nomination committee's search for a new, female board
member as replacement for Hughes has commenced, but is not expected
to be completed in time for the corporate assembly meeting in June.
A by-election will be held as soon as a new candidate has been
identified," Statoil said.
Write to Kjetil Malkenes Hovland at
kjetilmalkenes.hovland@wsj.com
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