How BP’s ‘sharp-elbowed’ chair lost patience with its Canadian chief executive

BP PLC ousted its chief executive Murray Auchincloss Wednesday and replaced him with Meg O’Neill, the company’s first external CEO hire in its 115-year-old history. Photo by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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Ousted BP PLC boss Murray Auchincloss clashed repeatedly with chair Albert Manifold in the weeks leading up to his abrupt departure, with the pair at loggerheads over whether to change strategy for the third time in as many years.

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Three people familiar with the relationship said Auchincloss, a BP lifer who has spent more than 25 years at the oil major, resisted efforts by Manifold, an industry outsider who took over as head of the board only two months ago, to radically reshape and slim down the company.

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“It was night and day between Murray and Albert,” said one person who knows both men, adding that Manifold saw Auchincloss as a significant obstacle to delivering his vision of a “simpler, leaner, more profitable” BP.

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Auchincloss had also realized earlier in the year that he did not want to continue long-term as BP’s chief executive and wanted to leave the job, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

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The dispute was partly personal. Auchincloss, an introverted Canadian former BP finance chief who was elevated to the top job after his predecessor Bernard Looney was dismissed for serious misconduct, found himself at odds with the gregarious and interventionist Manifold.

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“He’s a hard-edged, sharp-elbowed man who appears to work for the pleasure of work and likes to roll his sleeves up,” one person familiar with BP’s leadership team said of Manifold.

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Asset manager Aberdeen, a BP shareholder, described Manifold, a former chief executive of Irish building materials group CRH, as playing an “active” role in shaking up the 116-year old company.

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“When we met him recently it was very clear he would act to drive change through the business and in particular get BP back focused on what it does best, which is primarily upstream oil and gas production,” said Iain Pyle, Aberdeen’s senior investment director.

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Yet despite increasing strains, Auchincloss’s exit from the top job —announced in a statement on Wednesday evening — stunned many in the company. One BP insider said there had been rumours of a leadership change early in the new year, but forcing Auchincloss out just days before Christmas came as a shock.

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BP declined to comment.

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Murray Auchincloss, a Canadian former BP finance chief, had been in the chief executive role less than two years. Photo by RYAN LIM/AFP via Getty Images

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Investors had initially welcomed the 55-year old quiet number-cruncher as a safe pair of hands following Looney’s sudden departure over past relationships with colleagues. Over time, however, their confidence ebbed.

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Auchincloss was slow to tear up Looney’s grandiose but ultimately value-destructive ambitions to transform BP into a green energy champion, and retained faith in most of his former boss’s management team.

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He further irritated shareholders by publicly downplaying BP’s problems. Asked in February whether he had any regrets after a turbulent first year in charge, he replied: “Nothing comes top of mind.”

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Privately, some of BP’s largest investors said they were almost as frustrated by the company’s perceived arrogance and lack of contrition as its weak performance.