LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Peter Job is stepping down as head of Royal Dutch Shell's remuneration committee, which faced fierce shareholder criticism earlier this year after approving bonuses for managers who failed to meet targets.
The oil major said in a statement on Friday that Job, a former chief executive of financial news and information provider Reuters, would be replaced as committee chairman on Oct. 1 by Hans Wijers.
Wijers is chairman of chemical group Akzo Nobel and a former Dutch minister for economic affairs who currently sits on Shell's corporate and social responsibility committee.
Job steps down as chairman of the group that approves pay packages immediately but will remain a member of the committee until May 2010 when he will step down from the board altogether.
Shell did not give a reason for Job's departure although it did say he would have served nine years as non-executive director by the time of his departure next year.
Under corporate governance guidelines, serving for more than nine years is seen as a potential conflict with requirements for certain directors to be independent. Those who do serve for longer than nine years are expected to face annual re-election.
Shareholders grilled Shell's remuneration committee at a meeting in May and in a rare move rejected its executive pay plan. Cheers erupted when the result of the vote appeared showing almost 60 percent of investors had voted it down.
John Kerr, a former head of Britain's diplomatic service, is also leaving the remuneration committee. He moves to fill a vacancy on Shell's audit committee created by the departure of Lawrence Ricciardi who will also step down as a non-executive director next year after nine years on the board.
(Reporting by Paul Hoskins, Editing by Sitaraman Shankar)