Shell Lubricants named Istvan Kapitany as the new president of Houston-based Shell Commercial Fuels and Lubricants Americas, effective Jan. 1.
He succeeds Lisa Davis, who has held the post since 2009. She will assume the global position of executive vice president for strategy and portfolio for Shell downstream businesses next year, and will be based in London.
Davis said Kapitany is known for passionately driving customer and partner excellence, innovation and growth as a high priority, which will further strengthen [Shells] positions across the region. It will help us to retain our North America market leadership and continue increasing our share in Latin America, which offers major growth potential.
When Davis was named to head the Americas division, she told LubesnGreases magazine Shell had two primary focuses: One is growing and delivering value, and two is operational excellence. We want to simplify, be excellent and do our best as business partners.
Since joining Shell 25 years ago, Kapitany has served in various commercial roles in Europe and Africa. He is currently vice president of Shell Retail Fuels Europe and Africa,a position he has held since 2006, in which he is responsible for the retail business in nearly 20 countries with about 11,000 retail sites.
While at Shell, Kapitanywas elected vice president of the Hungarian Oil Association and president of the Hungarian Business Leaders Forum. He graduated from College of Trade Budapest in business administration.