Monroe Spaght
Encyclopedia
Monroe Edward Spaght was a research chemist who became president and chairman of the Shell Oil Company
. In 1965,he became the first American managing director of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company
, Shell's parent company.
; and he studied physics at the University of Leipzig
.
In 1965 he was also named one of seven managing directors of Royal Dutch Shell, which is, based in London. The company by-laws had to be changed to accommodate a director with citizenship in a country other than the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. Until that time, the board of directors had been composed of four British and three Dutch members. In that period, Royal Dutch Petroleum ran 500 subsidiaries worldwide.
Spaght retired in 1970 but remained a director of Royal Dutch and Shell for 10 more years.
(excellence) had a place in the company's core values and corporate philosophy. In his view, "Arete conveyed the idea of wholeness, of the fullest and finest exercise of one's abilities in all activities recognized as good. The Greeks prized it, strove for it, and rewarded it whenever it appeared." Spaght urged the company's managers to do the same.
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...
. In 1965,he became the first American managing director of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, Shell's parent company.
Early life
He earned his BS, MA, and PhD degrees from Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
; and he studied physics at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
.
Career
Spaght liked to call himself "just a country boy from Eureka, California." In the course of lifetime, he evolved in unexpected ways. He began working for Shell as a researcher in 1933. In his climb up the corporate ladder, he was named president of the Shell Development Company in 1949. He became executive vice president of Shell Oil in New York in 1953, president in 1961, and chairman fom 1965.In 1965 he was also named one of seven managing directors of Royal Dutch Shell, which is, based in London. The company by-laws had to be changed to accommodate a director with citizenship in a country other than the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. Until that time, the board of directors had been composed of four British and three Dutch members. In that period, Royal Dutch Petroleum ran 500 subsidiaries worldwide.
Spaght retired in 1970 but remained a director of Royal Dutch and Shell for 10 more years.
Corporate philosophy
In Shell's upper management, Spaght often advocated that the ancient Greek ideal of areteArete
Areté is the term meaning "virtue" or "excellence", from Greek ἈρετήArete may also be used:*as a given name of persons or things:**Queen Arete , a character in Homer's Odyssey.***197 Arete, an asteroid....
(excellence) had a place in the company's core values and corporate philosophy. In his view, "Arete conveyed the idea of wholeness, of the fullest and finest exercise of one's abilities in all activities recognized as good. The Greeks prized it, strove for it, and rewarded it whenever it appeared." Spaght urged the company's managers to do the same.
Selected works
Seki's published writings encompass 12 works in 15 publications in 2 languages and 978 library holdings.- 1965 -- The Bright Key: Thoughts on the Relation of Business to Research and Education. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. OCLC 177921.
- 1985 -- The Long Road from Eureka: An Autobiography.. England:[the author]. OCLC 15962340.
- 1978 -- The Multinational Corporation: Its Manners, Methods and Myths.. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press. OCLC 6001392.
Honors
- Order of Francisco de MirandaOrder of Francisco de MirandaThe Order of Francisco de Miranda is conferred by the Republic of Venezuela in memory of Francisco de Miranda . This national honor and decoration was created to recognize Venezuelan citizens and foreigners who have contributed to the sciences, to the progress of the country, to the humanities or...
(Venezuela), 1968. - Order of Orange-NassauOrder of Orange-NassauThe Order of Orange-Nassau is a military and civil order of the Netherlands which was created on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma of the Netherlands, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina. The Order is a chivalry order open to "everyone who have earned special merits for...
(Netherlands), 1970. - A named Chair in Chemistry was created in his honor at Stanford University; the incumbent Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry is Edward I. SolomonEdward I. SolomonProfessor Edward I. Solomon is the current Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. He is an elected member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts...
.