BP’s Lord Browne to step down
By Karen Remo-Listana
Posted: 15 January 2007
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After more than a decade in the CEO role at BP, Lord Browne will retire at the end of July this year. Tony Hayward, currently BP’s head of exploration and production, will succeed Browne from August 1.
 “Last summer, John and I had agreed that he would stay as CEO until the end of 2008,” Peter Sutherland, BP’s chairman, said. “John decided that it would be in the company’s interest to name a successor now in order to provide an orderly transition. Having made that decision, which the board fully supports, we came to the conclusion that a six month handover would be more appropriate than 18 months.”
Sutherland said during Browne’s tenure as the chief executive, he has presided over a fivefold increase in the company’s market capitalisation to £104.6 billion and profits to $22.3 billion; while the share price has gone up around 250% to 532 pence and earnings per share have gone up over 600%.
Back in 1990s when Browne took the chief role, BP was seen as a two pipeline company raking in cash of circa $30bn of revenue from the Forties field in the North Sea and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska - both discoveries of 20 years standing.
But his leadership also saw global challenges. In 2005, the company's reputation for safety was hit by an explosion at its Texas City refinery. Along with the reputation damage, the incident wiped $700 million off BP's profits.
BP had also shut down Alaska ’s biggest oilfield after discovering “unexpectedly severe corrosion” in its pipelines in Alaska , removing about 8% of US oil production and stoking fears that already high gas prices would shoot up further.
Despite all these, Sutherland said Browne is "the greatest British businessman of his generation". “His performance over the past 12 years has been extraordinary, which is no doubt why he has constantly been named by his fellow CEOs as the most impressive businessman in Britain,” he added.
Browne has been voted as the Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 – 2002.
In 1999, the Royal Academy of Engineering awarded him the Prince Philip Medal for his outstanding contribution to the field of Engineering. The Stanford Business School Alumni Association presented him with the Ernest C Arbuckle Award in 2001, in recognition of excellence in the field of management leadership.
Other awards include the Henry Shaw Medal of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Gold Medal of the Institute of Management, the Institute of Energy Melchett Medal (2001), the Society of Petroleum Engineers Public Service Award (2002), the Institution of Chemical Engineers Commemorative Medal (2003), the inaugural Channing Corporate Citizenship Award from British American Business Inc. (2004), the World Petroleum Congress Dewhurst Award (2005), the Dwight D Eisenhower Leadership Award from the Business Council for International Understanding. |
