“For an organisation ranked fifth in Marketing Week’s Most Valuable UK Brands list 2009, 16th in The Times’ Top 100 Graduate Employers list and cited as a ‘Top 10 Graduate Brand’ by the FT, it is a big surprise to hear Shell’s Navjot Singh describe the past few years with the words: “I didn’t think we had a good brand”.

But the bigger surprise is still to come. This time, though, it’s less what he says, but who he actually is. This is his job title: global marketing manager, recruitment and global HR communications manager, Shell (UK). “I report to the VP of recruitment, the VP of HR strategy and the exec VP for communications,” Singh says, attempting to clarify the role. “Put more simply, it’s HR and marketing together. I’m 50% a marketer; the rest is HR, communications and recruitment,” He pauses. “But I’m an HR person really.”

This is not the first time Singh, former market