was seen as aloof and uncommunicative. This unpopularity was reflected inside Shell where many were privately critical of his aggressive form of management and poor communications style. His devotion to Shell could not be faulted and he wore a ring on his right hand which had been engraved with the Shell symbol, the pecten. Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the Shell Centre for Sustainability at Houston's Rice University in March 2003, Watts spoke out forcefully in favour of Sustainable Development. Later that year he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to British business and to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development", which he served as chairman. Reserves Less than three years after taking over the chairmanship Watts was swept out of office in early 2004 by revelations that the company had overstated its proved oil and gas reserves by nearly 25 percent. On 9 January 2004, Shell announced that it was cutting its estimate of proven oil and gas reserves by roughly 3.9 billion barrels, close to 20 percent of total reserves. Investors began calling for Watts to resign. Reports surfaced of internal memoranda addressed to many of Shell's senior executives months earlier discussing the possibility that the company's proven reserves had been overestimated. Watts had stated that he had not been informed that there might be a need to restate reserves until late in 2003. During 2003, increasingly fractious e-mails from Walter van de Vijver, Watts' successor as CEO of Shell Exploration and Production, made it clear that senior executives had been discussing the issues around reserves for some time. In an appearance in front of around 1,000 staff in Shell Centre's sports hall in January 2004, Watts stated that he had been informed of the problem in late 2003 and that his first response had been to write down on a piece of paper that he (and, by implication, Shell) should 'get the facts and do the right thing.' In April 2004, the US law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell released a report on its review of Shell's reserves overbooking crisis. The report alleged that top company executives, including Watts, had known about the reserves shortfall since early 2002. As a result of the Davis Polk Report, the Board asked Watts to resign. Watts (who had consistently said that he had "...acted properly and in good faith at all times") was