Ann Pickard: the little-known executive leading Shell's gamble on Arctic oil

Pickard is known as one of the oil industry's toughest political operators with a history of doing whatever it takes to further Shell's interests - and the Arctic is 'just too big a prize' to leave

As a flotilla of kayaking environmental protesters surrounded her fleet in Seattle harbour in May, Ann Pickard, the rarely-interviewed executive in charge of Shell's Arctic drilling programme, launched a PR counter-offensive.

Shell's executive vice president for the Arctic laid out the company's creed of safety and assurance against the activists' slogans. "This is not rocket science; we can do this," she told the Financial Times. In the Seattle Times: "We're not going to make the mistakes of the past."