Former DuPont CEO Chad Holliday has been appointed chairman of the board of the Shell group, subject to his re-appointment as a non-executive director at the 2015 annual general meeting.

Holliday will succeed Jorma Ollila, the former CEO of mobile telephone giant Nokia, who served as chairman of the Shell board for nine years. He will be the first American chairman of the Dutch-based group.

Appointed to the Shell board with effect from September 2010, Holliday is currently chairman of the group's Corporate and Social Responsibility Committee and member of the Remuneration Committee. He was CEO of DuPont from 1998 to 2009 and chairman from 1999 to 2009.