Kelly joined the CCUS community as GM Commercial in May 2022. Previously, she led an internal consulting team serving the Shell Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and their Leadership Teams to deliver business strategies globally across all business through flexible deployment of distinctive consultancy and insights capabilities. Most recently, Kelly supported her team in developing strategies to support transformation of the Chemical’s business, definition of our Innovation strategy, and to shape business and enterprise level recommendations in response to the recent Dutch court ruling regarding Shell’s navigation of the energy transition.
Kelly began her career with ExxonMobil where she worked in international tax compliance and then tax appeals/litigation after completing law school. Since joining Shell, she has held a variety of commercial and JV governance positions across businesses including COG, Deep Water, Shales, Chemicals, Midstream and Trading, across geographies in North and South America and the Middle East, and has engaged with a variety of stakeholders from oil ministers, indigenous peoples and individual landowners, and IOCs to PE-backed thin caps. Prior to rejoining Deep Water in 2020 as the Eastern Gulf of Mexico (GoM)and Trading Commercial Manager, and then Exploration Commercial Manager, Kelly was the Commercial Manager for Shell Iraq and Senior Shareholder Representative of Basrah Gas Company (BGC) where she supported maximizing license value through a range of opportunities (upstream gas supply, liquids processing and extraction, LNG domestic supply and exports to regional and global markets and potential petrochemical opportunities).
Her Shell career highlights include working with multi-discipline teams to grow, and subsequently dilute, the unconventional and offshore portfolios in South America, leading fiscal/regulatory negotiations for deep water operations in Colombia, maximizing the Aromatics commercial margin for the Deer Park petrochemicals plant, designing and implementing creative structures with native corporations in Alaska, negotiating with the Iraqi government to resolve long term joint venture disputes, and managing flow assurance and supply chain events for GoM crude production during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kelly is involved in the oil and gas community as a member of the Association of International Energy Negotiators (formerly AIPN) since 2009, currently serving on the US Regional Committee. Formerly, she was a board member and Regional Director of the Middle East/North Africa region. She also represented Shell on the Outer Continental Shelf Advisory Board (OCSAB) and International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC). Throughout her tenure at Shell, Kelly has had a visible role in sustaining a vibrant commercial community through owning learning and development plans for various teams, and with positions on the Commercial Forum Leadership Team and Asset Commercial Network.
Kelly studied languages, accounting, and law to support a career in international business. She is a former CPA and licensed attorney in Texas. Kelly is currently pursuing an LLM in Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Kelly is married to Klaus Gerber and they welcomed their daughter, Adelaide, in August 2020 and their daughter, Margarethe, in February 2022.