Shell's New Energies boss Gainsborough to step down

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's <RDSa.L> New Energies boss Mark Gainsborough will step down in April and be replaced by Elisabeth Brinton, who joined the business in 2018 and will oversee the company's plans to expand its low-carbon and power business.

Gainsborough, a 39-year Shell veteran, set up Shell's New Energies four years ago as the oil and gas company faces heavy investor pressure to meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming.

He will leave the company at the end of the year, he said in a post on his LinkedIn page. A Shell spokeswoman confirmed the moves.

Brinton, a Silicon Valley and utility industry veteran, joined Shell in 2018 and is currently vice president for strategy at New Energies, according to her LinkedIn page.

She will take over on April 1.

The Anglo-Dutch company has made a number of large investments in renewables, electric vehicle technologies and power markets under Gainsborough, including acquiring British utility First Utility, European electric vehicle battery charging firm NewMotion and a stake in U.S. solar power provider Silicon Ranch.

Shell plans to invest $2 to $3 billion (2.30 billion pounds) a year on its power and low-carbon business compared with an overall spending budget of $30 billion per year between 2021 and 2025.

The company's growth plans in the sector were dealt a blow last month when it failed to acquire Dutch renewable energy business Eneco which went to a group led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp <8058.T> for 4.1 billion euros.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by David Evans and Jane Merriman)