IYou must not lie, neither to your friends nor to your board of directors. At least when you’re a boss in the UK. BP CEO Bernard Looney learned this the hard way. On Tuesday, September 12, he announced his immediate resignation following investigations carried out by his administrators. Informed, the council launched an investigation in 2022, which led the boss of the oil major to recognize “a small number of relationships” within the company. But that was before Mr. Looney was named head of the group. So he had given up.
A few revelations later, a new investigation, carried out in 2023, forced Bernard Looney to admit “that he had not provided details of all his relationships and accepts the fact that he is obliged to reveal more”, indicates the BP press release. Less convoluted, it means he hadn’t said everything. He resigned immediately. “Leaders are expected to act as role models and exercise good judgment in ways that earn the trust of others,” continues the press release.
Anglo-Saxon Protestant capitalism
This is how Anglo-Saxon Protestant capitalism goes, which places trust between partners and respect for a certain morality above all else. Many bosses have learned this the hard way. Bernard Looney obviously did not fully integrate this rule when he took the helm of BP in 2020. Irish, son of modest farmers, he had nevertheless climbed all the steps of his company since his arrival at the age of 21 years old and knew every nook and cranny. He could have sought advice from his former wife, Jacqueline Hurst, who became, after their quick divorce, the most prominent “life coach” in London. His bestseller How To Do, released in 2021, explains how to control your life by managing your relationships…
The seductive Irishman will remain the man of a double turn at BP. The first, upon his arrival, when he announced that the company had to move away from oil to become the champion of the energy transition. With, as a result, considerable investments in wind power, particularly in the North Sea.
The Covid-19 crisis, by depressing the price of oil, then the war in Ukraine, by forcing the company to leave Russia, gradually pushed BP to change its course. Under pressure from the markets, which judged the transition too rapid, he decided, in 2022, to slow down the pace of release of oil whose prices are today at their highest. Lost by his connections, he leaves a very profitable business, but lost in his transition.