Albert, former CEO of CRH was appointed Chairman of British Petroleum back in July 2025. He has moved quickly, effecting the replacement of the incumbent CEO, Canadian Murray Auchincloss, with American Meg O’Neill. She was most recently with Woodside Energy of Australia and before that spent 28 years at Exxon. Auchincloss was perceived to be moving too slowly to reverse the direction of the company after the departure of his predecessor, Bernard Looney and it remains under pressure from weak energy prices, high debt, and a low stock price. BPs P/E ratio remains below competitors and that makes it a takeover target.
Then in May 2026, Manifold was abruptly removed as Chairman for unspecified ‘unacceptable conduct’ which reportedly involved bullying and intimidation of BP staff.
Manifold challenged the characterization of his conduct and there has been some back and forth in the media.
In retrospect, the episode reflects badly on BP and especially its board. The Company has been a serial underperformer in the last 15 years relative to peers like Exxon, Chevron and Shell. Manifold had a great run in more than tripling the value of CRH during his tenure as CEO as well as coming up through an organization that was known for its bare knuckle capitalist style. So BP knew what it was getting when they hired him. To terminate him because he was ‘shouty’ as one report stated appears to be the height of either hypocrisy or incompetence.
As a BP shareholder, I will be watching this board and management with a very critical eye.