Going Places

Shell’s Lynn Elsenhans reaches out to the world—and comes home to Houston.b

By Chris Warren
Photography: Tommy LaVergne

It was a hectic two weeks. Since climbing aboard a plane in her hometown of Houston, Lynn Laverty Elsenhans had, quite literally, been on a world tour. Journeying first through Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore, she then skipped all the way across the globe to the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, and Denmark before making it back to Texas.

Elsenhans isn’t a rock star, and she wasn’t on a package tour concocted by a maniacal travel agent. As the newly promoted executive vice president of global manufacturing for Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company’s downstream group, she is seasoned to these sorts of whirlwind journeys. “I have responsibility for Shell’s refining business and chemicals manufacturing worldwide,” Elsenhans ’78 says from her home, just hours after getting off the plane from Europe and reuniting with her husband, John. “I was on the road for two weeks because I went to 12 plants around the world. That’s what I do.”

Her new position makes Elsenhans an integral part of Shell’s business worldwide, so that pace is likely to continue. Now, instead of focusing only on the company’s activities in the United States, she has assumed international responsibilities.

It is a grueling, demanding job for this math–science major. But it’s also one that’s vitally important to Shell. In fact, Elsenhans has perhaps the most important task imaginable at the energy company: ensuring that Shell’s plants and refineries have the top safety and environmental performance in the industry while reliably producing oil and chemical products for Shell’s customers.