BP’s ousted chair said he intends to challenge accusations against him. Albert Manifold was abruptly removed from his position at the top of the oil major’s board this week over what the company said were “serious concerns” related to “governance standards, oversight, and conduct.” Subsequent reporting in the Financial Times and elsewhere cited internal complaints about bullying-style behavior toward senior staff, and allegations that Manifold tried to prevent new CEO Meg O’Neill from meeting with other board members (a BP spokesperson didn’t return a request for further detail). In a statement to the New York Times, Manifold said he “dispute[s] entirely the characterization of my conduct, and will not allow a false narrative to go unchallenged.”
In any case, BP has gone through three full-time CEOs and three board chairs in just three years, at a time when it is under pressure from activist investors and being eyed up as a takeover target by rival majors. The company has also swung its strategy widely, from an embrace of low-carbon business lines to a hard pivot back to oil and gas. Along the way, it unsuccessfully sought to scrap shareholder resolutions demanding the company disclose more data about its emissions and align its business model with the Paris Agreement. “What investors are saying is that boards are playing with fire if they try to take away shareholders’ voice on issues of climate strategy,” Andrew Logan, oil and gas director for the investor advocacy group Ceres, told Semafor.