Chairman of Oil Giant Unexpectedly Axed Over 'Conduct Issues'
BP has ousted its chairman over what it called serious concerns related to “important governance standards, oversight and conduct.”
The departure was abrupt and unexpected, with Albert Manifold having been appointed to the position late last year.
“Albert has helped bring a welcome focus and pace to BP’s transformation,” Amanda Blanc, senior independent director, said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action.”
BP’s board was unanimous in the decision and Ian Tyler, a member of the board, was named interim chair, effective immediately. The company did not elaborate on Manifold’s sudden departure.
BP, based in London, is a “supermajor,” one of the five largest oil production and exploration companies in the world when measured by revenue and profit.
After a new focus on renewable energy by BP in 2020, the company was seeking a return to its roots by 2025. CEO Murray Auchincloss said last year that optimism over opportunities in renewable energy was misplaced, with the company moving “too far and too fast.”
Manifold, who had been the top executive at Dublin-based global building materials company CRH for 10 years, became the chair at BP in October. BP was looking for someone to redirect the oil giant and went with an industry outsider in Manifold, who had made major strategic changes at CRH.
BP’s hard reset last year was criticized by environmentalists, as well as some shareholders. Zigzagging goals within BP have been accompanied by tumultuous changes in leadership, though not specifically tied to strategy.
CEO Bernard Looney resigned in late 2023 after BP determined that he had misled the company over past relationships with colleagues.
Auchincloss stepped down in December and the company named Meg O’Neill as his successor, two months after Manifold became chair.
Manifold was challenged almost immediately when shareholders defeated company resolutions this spring that would have allowed BP to reduce climate reporting requirements and move its annual meetings fully online. Some 18% of shareholders voted against Manifold’s election as chairman, a high level of opposition for an appointment that is generally rubber-stamped by investors.
Legal & General, one of Britain’s largest insurers and investment companies, said at the time that Manifold was responsible for resolutions that would have had “a negative impact on shareholders’ insight into how the company is addressing financially material long-term risks, and seizing long-term value creation opportunities, associated with the energy transition,” the Times of London reported on April 23.
Glass Lewis, an influential shareholder adviser, urged investors to vote against Manifold’s election. It held that BP took “unprecedented action” by refusing to consider a resolution from a group of climate activists and pension funds hoping to force the board to create an alternative strategy should demand for fossil fuels decline, the Times reported.
Like other big oil companies, BP has struggled with falling demand in recent years.
BP’s 2025 earnings fell 16% from a year earlier to $7.49 billion as the price of Brent crude, a benchmark for international oil prices, dropped 16.9%. The company’s preferred measure of earnings is underlying replacement cost profit, which adjusts for one-time items and fluctuations in the market value of inventories.
Last year there were media reports that British oil giant Shell was in talks to buy rival BP. Shell denied the reports at the time.
The search for a new chair is underway, BP said Tuesday.
Shares of BP Plc slid 5% on the NYSE.
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Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
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