A former Calgarian will head one of the world’s largest oil giants after BP announced the resignation of its CEO Bernard Looney for “undisclosed” relationships with colleagues, effective immediately..Murray Auchincloss, the company’s CFO, will act as CEO on an interim basis. .Auchincloss hails from Calgary where he earned a commerce degree at the UofC before joining BP via its takeover of Amoco Canada in 1999. .Since then he has worked in both the US and the UK in a range of roles including chief financial officer for its upstream and North Sea business units as well as the company’s North American natural gas business..For the past three years he has been head of the CEO’s office — its chief of staff, essentially — and managed all aspects of that office and the executive processes. In company circles he’s reportedly been nicknamed “the Futurist.”.“Murray’s financial expertise, experience and knowledge make him a trusted advisor and group leader. His broad experience of working across the group has provided him with deep insight into BP’s assets and businesses,” it said on its website..In an internal company webcast on Wednesday, Auchincloss sought to reassure staff it will be business as usual going forward..“While the person in the CEO’s chair has changed, the fundamentals have not changed,” he said as per Bloomberg..The leadership team has “the full support of the board to continue to deliver the plan we have laid out,” he added..It comes after Looney, one of the world’s most prominent Big Oil CEOs, was ousted after 'anonymous' internal allegations of inappropriate relationships with colleagues happened before he was appointed to the top job in 2020..In May of last year, that whistleblower tip was investigated where Looney disclosed a “small number of historical relationships” and no breach was found..However, in recent weeks further allegations of a similar nature were revealed and Looney “now accepts that he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures,” BP said in a statement. “He did not provide details of all relationships and accepts he was obligated to make more complete disclosure.”.That investigation is ongoing with the support of external legal counsel. No decisions have been made with respect to remuneration or severance payments..“The Company has strong values and the Board expects everyone to behave in accordance with those values. All leaders in particular are expected to act as role models and to exercise good judgement in a way that earns the trust of others,” BP said. .It’s just the latest in a series of C-Suite scandals that have rocked the company in recent years..In 2007 former CEO Lord John Browne was forced to resign after he had an undisclosed four-year same-sex relationship with Canadian Jeff Chevalier. Browne is presently co-founder and chairman of BeyondNetZero a climate-themed private equity fund..In 2010 Tony Hayward resigned after the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico after infamously complaining “I want my life back.“
