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At the beginning of April, Carol Howle stepped down from the BP board to take on the role of deputy chief executive officer, a move designed to support the “orderly transition” at the head of the energy group, in effect smoothing the way for newly appointed Meg O’Neill.
Regrettably, rather than focusing on Howle and O’Neill’s experience and expertise, the financial press made great store of the fact that so many senior positions in the oil major were now occupied by women, including finance chief Kate Thomson. But the change at the helm was overshadowed towards the end of May by news that group chair Albert Manifold had been ousted by the board due to “serious concerns” over governance standards, reportedly relating to bullying in the workplace.
A week before Manifold was shown the door, Howle offloaded nearly £2mn worth of stock in BP, plus she was subsequently awarded restricted share units to the value of £558,576.
The bad press linked to Manifold wouldn’t have been welcomed by O’Neill and her team as the group struggles to convince the market that it now possesses greater strategic clarity, ergo its pivot back towards its core oil and gas functions. It’s to be hoped that Howle, a 25-year BP veteran, will play a decisive role in the group’s long-term strategy development, which could best be described as somewhat wayward given that some male executives, starting with Lord Browne, seemed to forget that they were working for a fossil fuel company.
