Ousted BP 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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
BP declined to comment.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
After Manifold’s arrival, Auchincloss resisted pressure to revisit the strategy he had outlined in February in response to activist investor Elliott Management.
That plan slashed spending on low-carbon energy and promised $20bn of asset sales and cost cuts to shore up BP’s balance sheet. Elliott quickly dismissed what was billed as a “fundamental reset” as insufficient, and BP’s share price continued to slide.
Even minor changes were contentious. “It was like pulling teeth,” said the person who knows both men. One person familiar with Manifold’s thinking said the chair felt compelled to intervene because Auchincloss was not delivering on his mandate. “He just wasn’t a CEO,” the person said.
After taking over as chair on October 1, Manifold swiftly launched a strategic review, examining BP’s business lines and concluding that its fully “integrated” model, spanning exploration, refining, trading and 21,000 petrol stations, was too unwieldy.
Rather than confronting Elliott, Manifold sought the activist out, meeting the investor and soliciting views.
“He knows how to create shareholder value,” said the person familiar with his thinking.
He also moved quickly to replace Auchincloss, with the board returning to the shortlist of candidates assessed before Auchincloss was appointed in January 2024, according to two people briefed on the process.
Meg O’Neill, the head of Australia’s Woodside Energy, was among them. Although Woodside shares have underperformed BP, she was selected for her operational expertise, honed over many years in executive roles at ExxonMobil, said one of the people.
Once the decision was taken, Manifold pushed for a rapid exit to avoid further disruption. One person said BP was keen to avoid the “optics” of Auchincloss presenting full-year results early next year only to depart soon after.
The person familiar with Manifold’s thinking rejected suggestions that he intended to act as an executive chair after O’Neill came on board.
“He had to impose himself because Murray wasn’t managing what needed to be managed,” the person said, adding that Manifold planned to switch to a more hands-off phase.
Carol Howle, BP’s current head of trading, will assume the role of interim chief executive until O’Neill takes over in April, although the company is not expected to stand still while it awaits her arrival, with the current asset disposals plan to continue.
“BP is not going to sit on its hands for a whole quarter,” the person said, though major portfolio decisions would be deferred until the new chief is in place.
But BP investors said their recent interactions with Manifold suggested that O’Neill would follow the lead by enacting his vision and strategy for the company.
As one shareholder said: “It’s the Albert Manifold show.”