Gérard de Nazelle joined Saudi Aramco end Sep 2019 from Reliance Industries, where he was Head of Technology from 2014 to 2019. From 2010 to 2014, as an entrepreneur, Gerard de Nazelle was the CEO of Polygenta Technologies in India: Polygenta won the Financial Times – International Finance Corporation Award (FT-IFC) of the “Sustainable Investment of the Year 2012”. Before joining Polygenta, he was a Director at the European Commission, and served as the first Director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), to contribute to the improvement of Europe’s innovation performances. He joined Shell in 1990 and was Global Manager Innovation & Research, responsible for the development of new technology options for all Shell businesses and clean energy futures, until he joined the EIT in 2009. In 1994, he moved to Japan, then to Singapore, where he participated in the construction and start-up of two large petrochemical projects (1996 – 2003). He held the position of Technology Manager of Shell (Singapore), before becoming Chief Technologist of the multi-billion CNOOC-Shell project in China (2004-2007).​

Dr. de Nazelle has been a member of the “Chemical and Environmental Engineering Consultative Committee” of the National University of Singapore (2001-2003), and a member of the Expert Panel on Carbon Capture and Utilization at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A* Star) in Singapore. Other involvement into Joined Industry Partnerships includes his participation (representing Shell) to the CO2 Capture and Storage Committee of the Energy Technology Institute (ETI, UK). An entrepreneur in creating both profitable and sustainable businesses, Gerard de Nazelle has presented the success story of Polygenta at various conferences as a (modest) example of innovation driven growth. He holds an MSc degree (Chem. Eng.) from ENSIC (France) and a PhD (Physics) from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands).​