Royal Dutch Shell plc has named Peter Voser chief executive officer.

The supervisory board of RWE DeaAG has appointed Thomas Rappuhn as chief executive officer of the company in effect Jan. 1, 2010. He will take over this position from Dr. Georg Schöning, who will retire at the end of 2009.

Varel International has named John Capasso as chief financial officer.

Bob Bloom, senior vice president and chief technology officer, is retiring after 40 years of service to National Oilwell Varco. The company has named Hege Kverneland as Bloom’s successor.

ABS Nautical Systems, a division of ABS, has appointed Karen Hughey as president and chief operating officer, replacing Jack Kitchura, who has retired after leading Nautical Systems for the past 10 years.

Karl Erik Kjelstad has been appointed executive vice president and member of the executive management team at Aker Solutions.

The board of the directors of Avro Energy Inc. has named Donny Fitzgerald, a director of the company, as vice president of operations for its US operations.

Smith International has appointed Jonathan Thiele (left) as vice president and general manager of Dyna-Drill Technologies, a business unit of Smith Technologies.

Ian Bonnon (right) has been named group director, renewables at Noble Denton.

Encorp has named Darrell A. Struss as southwestern regional sales manager.

—In Memorium—
The Bayou Companies has reported that Mike Kress, vice president of sales and marketing, has died.