Petrochemicals giant Saudi Aramco, also the world’s biggest crude exporter, has appointed a number of new board members with international corporate experience that could be valuable if it pursues a broader initial public offering outside Saudi Arabia.

With the five new appointments, Aramco is expanding the board from nine to 11 as three directors step down. All three new members are Americans.

The choice of three oil and petrochemical company executives is not surprising. The world, however, is taking note of the fact that one of these is a female, rare in the Saudi corporate world.

Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, named by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s most powerful women in 2008 and chair of oil group Sunoco from 2008 to 2012, will be the first woman to sit on the Saudi Aramco board.

Prior to taking the Sunoco position, Elsenhans worked for Royal Dutch Shell for more than 28 years, in her last position as executive vice president of global manufacturing. She also served on the board of oilfield service company Baker Hughes from 2012 to July 2017 and currently sits on the board of UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline.

Andrew Liveris, long-term chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, will join the Aramco board on Jul. 1, following his retirement from DowDuPont,  where he is currently executive chairman. Dow and Saudi Aramco are partners in the petrochemicals joint venture Sadara Chemical Co at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, on the Persian Gulf coast.

Peter Cella, former president and CEO of Chevron Phillips Chemical, is the third American among the new board members. Other appointees are Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan and economics minister Mohammad Al Tuwaijri.

The six returning board members are Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih, who is also board chairman, and Amin Nasser, Aramco’s CEO. Minister of state, Ibrahim al-Assaf and managing director of the government-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF), Yasir al-Rumayyan, also will remain on the board.

Leaving the board are Majid Al-Moneef, an adviser to the Saudi royal court, Khaled Al-Sultan, rector of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and former World Bank Managing Director Peter Woicke.