This year the IPT re-launched its Annual Lecture with a very exciting guest speaker, James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK. With current and future energy matters such a topical issue for us all, James spoke about "Energy Now and for the Future".
Select the link to watch the lecture delivered by James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK.
Click here to watch the Introduction to the Lecture
Click here to watch the Lecture
Click here to watch the Q&As
Click here for a transcript of the Lecture
James Smith has been with Shell since 1983 and has worked in all the Group’s major businesses.
Shell employs around 8,000 people directly in the UK and indirectly around 80,000 jobs are dependent on its activities.
The company is a key provider of energy, operating about 25% of the UK’s oil and gas supplies and producing about 16% of the nation’s petrol and diesel. Best known to the public for its service stations, Shell has around 1,000 retail sites in the UK.
James Smith was on the global board of Shell Chemicals as head of technology, strategy and sustainable development until the end of 2003. He has been head of resourcing, which principally involved ensuring there is a highly talented and diverse group of leaders for the top 200 jobs in Shell. Much of his early career was in upstream oil and gas production, latterly in business development.
He lived for 4 1/2 years in South-East Asia, in Malaysia and Brunei. He has been extensively involved in Shell business in a number of Middle Eastern countries and in the US. In addition he was MD of Shell’s downstream business in Brunei and chaired Shell’s global catalyst business during a period of restructuring for profitability.
The Industry and Parliament Trust would like to thank BT for their support in providing the BT Auditorium to us to hold this event.
The IPT annual public lecture is held in memory of the Rt Hon the Lord Irving of Dartford, former Chairman of Trustees.
The guidelines for the lecture are that:
- It identifies areas of common purpose which can be addressed by those of all political views without prejudicing strongly held individual beliefs;
- The subject relates to an aspect of the interface between government and industry (the terms being used in their broadest sense).
In the past, the lecture has attracted some fascinating and expert speakers (see below). To read transcripts of previous lectures, please click on the highlighted names of individual speakers.
Former Speakers
The Rt Hon the Lord Irving of Dartford, DL
Sydney Irving was born on 1 July 1918 and educated at the London School of Economis where he gained a BSc(Econ) and DipEd. During the war years, he served as Major with the West Yorkshire Regiment and the Royal West African Frontier Force, afterwards teaching at Colyer Road Secondary School in Northfleet.
Lord Irving was Dartford's Labour MP between 1955 and 1970 and again between 1974 and 1979, holding at various times the post of Alderman, Councillor and Deputy Lieutenant for Kent.
His parliamentary career between the years of 1964 and 1966 occupied him as Treasurer of HM Household and Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means, followed by two years as Chairman of the Committee and Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. He became a member of the Privy Council in 1969 and was created Baron Irving of Dartford - a life peerage - in 1979. He also occupied the office of Opposition Spokesman on Defence in the House of Lords.
Lord Irving served as IPT's Chairman of the Trustees from 1982 to 1990. In 1977, he was one of the first intake of Members of Parliament to undertake a Fellowship study course.
He was appointed Deputy Pro-Chancellor of Kent University in 1968, becoming Director of the University's Foundation Fund in 1971, a position he held for three years. He also acted as delegate to many countries, including Malta, Israel, Hong Kong and Australia.
Locally he spent some time as a member of Dartford and Gravesham Hospital Board and in 1983 he was elected President of the Dartford and District Chamber of Commerce, using his many connections with local and central government to benefit local business.
In private life, Lord Irving was a patron of the arts and a talented pianist. He is survived by his wife, whom he married in 1942, and two married children - the Hon Stephen John Irving and the Hon Susan Anne House.
His ideas, pursued with energy and tireless enthusiasm, fuelled much change for the better in Dartford. He was a greatly respected man of conscience, who used his varied and considerable abilities in the service of his community.
