Robert Waley Cohen
Sir Robert Waley Cohen (1877–1952), oil industrialist of Asiatic Petroleum Co
Studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge
After Cambridge, worked unpaid on research in the Meteorological Office, working under W. N. Shaw, his former tutor and secretary to the Meteorological Office.
1901 Through family connections he joined Shell Transport and Trading Company.
1902 Shell and Royal Dutch joined forces
1903 The 2 companies formed a new concern, the Asiatic Petroleum Company, to market oil produced by both parent companies.
1904 Waley Cohen married Alice Violet Beddington
1906 Shell was in such a weak position that it was forced to discuss amalgamation with Royal Dutch. Waley Cohen negotiated on Shell's behalf. Under the amalgamation two companies were established, the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co and the Baatafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. Royal Dutch owned 60 per cent of the shares and Shell Transport and Trading owned 40 per cent.
1908 he began negotiations with the Egyptian government concerning exploration rights, leases for concessions, and the building of a refinery at Suez.
1910 he negotiated the purchase of the Shanghai-Langkat oil company
In dealing with the new oil from Borneo, he had petroleum subjected to scientific analysis for the first time in the oil industry
WWI Waley Cohen organized the transport to the UK of the TNT factory that had been set up in Rotterdam as a result of his scientific analysis. Also responsible for making Shell's oil available to the British government.
1920 He was appointed KBE in recognition of his work during the war.
1928 he retired from day-to-day management at Shell, but not before realizing his ambition to open a Shell research laboratory, at Emeryville in California, and thus provide for proper scientific research in the oil industry.
1929 Chairman of African and Eastern, an independent concern operating in west Africa. Both it and the rival Niger Company, bought by Lord Leverhulme in 1920 and reorganized by D'Arcy Cooper, were operating at huge losses. Waley Cohen worked for amalgamation - the United Africa Co was formed in 1929.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Sir Robert Waley Cohen, ODNB