25 Louisiana Entrepreneurs Selected for Shell's 2024 Business Accelerator

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Apr 16, 2024, 06:12 ET

Shell LiveWIRE Louisiana empowers local entrepreneurs to create economic growth and positive impacts within their parishes

NEW ORLEANS, April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Shell USA, Inc., in collaboration with the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC), named the 25 entrepreneurs selected from 13 Louisiana parishes who comprise the 2024 Louisiana cohort of Shell's flagship enterprise development program, Shell LiveWIRE. The global program, now in its second year in Louisiana, works as a business accelerator and aims to strengthen the local economy by giving Louisiana entrepreneurs free access to knowledge, skills, networks, and resources that can help their businesses and, in turn, their communities thrive.

Shell LiveWIRE's 2024 Louisiana cohort features a diverse class of entrepreneurs, whose businesses span a range of industries: architecture, beauty, construction, fashion, food and beverage, health, insurance, landscaping, hospitality, security, and more.

Meet the 2024 Shell LiveWIRE Louisiana Cohort

"Small businesses backed by local entrepreneurs are the foundation for economic development," notes Emma Lewis, Shell SVP US Chemicals and Products. "Shell LiveWIRE recognizes the value and impact of homegrown businesses. We are excited to welcome our second group of south Louisiana self-starters who are creating employment opportunities, delivering diverse services and products, and contributing to the growth of their neighborhoods and communities. A small business can make a big difference."

The program aims to connect participants to support networks within their markets to help build and expand businesses across 13 rural parishes in South Louisiana: Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Saint Charles, Saint James, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Mary, and Terrebonne.

Louisiana Small Business Development Center acts as the local implementing partner for the program, bringing a proven curriculum customized to meet the needs of the Shell LiveWIRE Louisiana cohort class. The sessions are delivered by local subject-matter experts in marketing, finance, and team management.

"The Louisiana Small Business Development is honored to have partnered with Shell LiveWIRE to create and deliver a high-impact entrepreneurial program to support and assist these creative and diverse small business owners," said Heidi Melancon, Associate LSBDC State Director. "The combination of training, business advising, and expert resources is a winning combination for entrepreneurs to create growth-oriented, profitable, and sustainable businesses. LSBDC will continue to support these entrepreneurs beyond their Shell LiveWIRE graduation. Entrepreneurship is crucial to economic growth and prosperity, and we are appreciative of Shell's commitment to entrepreneurs worldwide."

About Shell LiveWIRE

Shell LiveWIRE is the flagship enterprise development program of Shell. The program strengthens local economies across the globe by promoting entrepreneurship and developing entrepreneurs.

Shell LiveWIRE's mission is to stimulate local economies through entrepreneurship, innovation, and meaningful employment. Every year, Shell LiveWIRE supports thousands of individuals in accessing the knowledge, skills, networks, and resources to turn business ideas into successful enterprises that provide sustainable incomes, create jobs and drive innovation.

Started in Scotland in 1982, the program is now active in 18 countries around the world. In 2023, Shell LiveWIRE trained about 3,400 people around the world and helped create more than 1,200 jobs and 196 new businesses.

About Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC)

The Louisiana Small Business Development Center Network (LSBDC) is a mission and performance driven organization. The focus of the LSBDC is to provide high quality, professional assistance to small businesses with an emphasis on in-depth, substantive, longer-term, outcome-oriented consulting and training. The LSBDC has operated in Louisiana for forty years and is a member of America's Small Business Development Association. The LSBDC, which began in 1983, is the oldest and largest national small business technical assistance organization. Louisiana is organized into ten regional centers, each hosted by a university in that region. The core services of the LSBDC are confidential one-on-one business consulting, impactful training programs, and expert resources designed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs. Annually, the LSBDC assists 3,500 plus small businesses, creating over $100 million in capitalization, starting nearly 200 businesses, creating over 900 jobs, and training nearly 7,000 businesses.

Cautionary note
The companies in which Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this announcement "Shell", "Shell Group" and "Group" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this announcement refer to entities over which Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. The term "joint venture", "joint operations", "joint arrangements", and "associates" may also be used to refer to a commercial arrangement in which Shell has a direct or indirect ownership interest with one or more parties. The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

Forward-Looking Statements

This announcement contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "aim"; "ambition"; ''anticipate''; ''believe''; "commit"; "commitment"; ''could''; ''estimate''; ''expect''; ''goals''; ''intend''; ''may''; "milestones"; ''objectives''; ''outlook''; ''plan''; ''probably''; ''project''; ''risks''; "schedule"; ''seek''; ''should''; ''target''; ''will''; "would" and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, judicial, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; (m) risks associated with the impact of pandemics, such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, regional conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, and a significant cybersecurity breach; and (n) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Shell plc's Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023 (available at www.shell.com/investors/news-and-filings/sec-filings.html and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this announcement and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement, April 15, 2024. Neither Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.

Shell's Net Carbon Intensity

Also, in this announcement we may refer to Shell's "Net Carbon Intensity" (NCI), which includes Shell's carbon emissions from the production of our energy products, our suppliers' carbon emissions in supplying energy for that production and our customers' carbon emissions associated with their use of the energy products we sell. Shell's NCI also includes the emissions associated with the production and use of energy products produced by others which Shell purchases for resale. Shell only controls its own emissions. The use of the terms Shell's "Net Carbon Intensity" or NCI are for convenience only and not intended to suggest these emissions are those of Shell plc or its subsidiaries.

Shell's net-zero emissions target

Shell's operating plan, outlook and budgets are forecasted for a ten-year period and are updated every year. They reflect the current economic environment and what we can reasonably expect to see over the next ten years. Accordingly, they reflect our Scope 1, Scope 2 and NCI targets over the next ten years. However, Shell's operating plans cannot reflect our 2050 net-zero emissions target, as this target is currently outside our planning period. In the future, as society moves towards net-zero emissions, we expect Shell's operating plans to reflect this movement. However, if society is not net zero in 2050, as of today, there would be significant risk that Shell may not meet this target.

Forward-Looking non-GAAP measures

This announcement may contain certain forward-looking non-GAAP measures such as cash capital expenditure and divestments. We are unable to provide a reconciliation of these forward-looking non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures because certain information needed to reconcile those non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is dependent on future events some of which are outside the control of Shell, such as oil and gas prices, interest rates and exchange rates. Moreover, estimating such GAAP measures with the required precision necessary to provide a meaningful reconciliation is extremely difficult and could not be accomplished without unreasonable effort. Non-GAAP measures in respect of future periods which cannot be reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measure are calculated in a manner which is consistent with the accounting policies applied in Shell plc's consolidated financial statements.

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We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Shell USA, Inc.