What we know about the sudden exit of BP’s Bernard Looney

Good morning. The chief executive of BP, one of the UK’s biggest companies, quit on Tuesday in a shock announcement admitting he had not been “fully transparent” when disclosing the truth about relationships he had with employees.

Bernard Looney, 53, becomes the latest in a series of high profile CEOs forced to resign as boardrooms across the world increasingly scrutinise their executives’ behaviour.

But what exactly did Looney – who had already partly fessed up to other relationships with employees – do wrong, and what does his exit from one of the UK’s biggest fossil fuel companies mean for the climate crisis?

I asked Alex Lawson, Guardian business correspondent, for the all the details. But first the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘Clearly there is increased scrutiny on the private lives of executives’

Looney joined BP straight after he graduated from University College Dublin in 1991. After 32 years, today is just the second day of his working life not at BP.

Alex says companies as big as BP, which is worth £88.5bn (the equivalent to about 20 times the value of Marks & Spencer), “normally plan succession years in advance” and “the last thing they want to do is shock investors – but this was definitely a shock”. As the markets closed yesterday, BP’s shares were down almost 3%.

The last big UK boss to quit with no warning was Alison Rose, the chief executive of RBS, over how the firm – which owns Coutts – handled its relationship with Nigel Farage. “But that came after weeks of loud campaigning from Farage”, and the intervention of the prime minister.

So what has Looney done wrong?

The quick answer is we don’t know for sure, yet. The company told investors that Looney, who was paid more than £10m last year, resigned because he “did not provide details of all relationships and accepts he was obligated to make more complete disclosure”.

We need to rewind a little. In May 2022 an “anonymous source” – those are BP’s words – complained to the company about “Looney’s conduct in respect of personal relationships with company colleagues”.

BP hired an expensive law firm and investigated the allegations, as part of that Looney “disclosed a small number of historical relationships with colleagues prior to becoming CEO”. The investigation found there had been “no breach of the company’s code of conduct”, and Looney continued as the boss.

But, then BP’s board received “further allegations of a similar nature”. It hired more lawyers, and investigated again. This time Looney admitted “he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures”. He quit, and the investigation continues.

But what exactly did he do?

Someone who might know is his ex-wife Jacqueline Hurst. They met when she was his life coach, and were married between 2017 and 2019. She wrote a book How to Do You: the Life Changing Art of Mastering Your Thoughts and Taking Control of Your Life. In the chapter on dealing with anxiety, she wrote about her ex-husband (understood to be Looney, though he was not named).

“When my husband ended our marriage suddenly and without warning via a WhatsApp message, I was naturally devastated,” she wrote. “I learned later that he had only married me because he wanted to get to the next level of seniority in the company he worked for and he had to be seen to be married, in order to be given the promotion.

“Unbelievable, I know, but that was the case. Getting my mind – and thoughts – around what had happened took time.”

Looney wasn’t promoted during the time of marriage, but was appointed CEO soon afterwards in February 2020, and a friend of Looney’s denied the claims to the Sunday Times, saying: “He was briefly married during a period in which he wasn’t promoted. So if he married her to get promoted, that didn’t seem to have worked. Maybe he divorced her to get promoted.”

Some sources claim that there was speculation about his relationships at BP long before he was made chief executive, and questioned why the company didn’t act sooner.

“It has been an open secret for some time, and the BP board must have known about his reputation before he was appointed as chief executive. It’s absolute nonsense to suggest that this came to light last year,” one senior oil industry source told the Guardian.

The company declined to comment, Looney could not be reached for comment.

Is this part of the business world’s #MeToomoment?

We don’t know anything about the nature of Looney’s relationships, though Alex says we could expect more details soon and rumours are already circulating in the City. But, there is nothing to suggest that any of the relationships were inappropriate or not consensual.

Looney’s case should not be lumped together with all bosses who have stepped down due to issues related to their personal conduct, such as the hedge fund billionaire Crispin Odey, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. Odey denies the allegations.

But it is part of a wider shift in the standards that boardroom directors – and society – expect from leaders. “Clearly there is increased scrutiny on the private lives of executives, particularly the chief executive,” Alex says. “It is clear that even when a relationship is consensual, it might breach company policy especially if people aren’t being transparent about it.”

Looney’s case could be compared to that of Steve Easterbrook, the former British boss of McDonald’s who was fired in 2019 for having a secret relationship with an employee. He was later fined $400,000 (£328,000) by the US regulator for “concealing the extent of his misconduct”.

Didn’t another BP boss quit over a personal relationship?

Yes. Looney’s mentor Lord Browne quit as BP CEO in 2007 after admitting he had lied to court about a relationship with another man. Browne said had been “deep deep in the closet” and trying to hide his sexuality.

Asked recently by the Observer if he had any regrets, Browne said: “Tons. I wish I could have come out earlier.” Of lying about how he met his then lover – jogging in Battersea park rather than online, Browne said: “It was a silly fib. Such a bad error of judgment.”

It’s advice to which Looney – the last of Browne’s “turtles”, the nickname given to his eager acolytes earmarked for top jobs – perhaps should have listened.

Who might replace Looney and what does it mean for the climate crisis?

“When Looney took over in 2020, he shocked investors by almost immediately setting a target of BP being carbon net zero by 2050,” Alex says. “It was the first of a series of energy companies to set a target, even though investors were worried it could hurt profits.”

Since then BP has angered climate campaigners by scaling back its target to reduce emissions this decade by 35-40% down to just 20-30%, despite this year recording its biggest profits in its 114-year history as the oil price spiked due to the war in Ukraine.

“BP’s board now has to make a choice of what kind of CEO they want,” says Alex. “Is it going to be someone who wants to speed up the transition to green energy or someone who wants to please investors by getting the share price upby keeping the focus on oil and gas?”

What else we’ve been reading

• More than a third of Raac-effected schools are in Essex. Tim Burrows argues it has much more to with decades of Tory neglect than a postwar building boom. Toby Moses, head of newsletters

• Everyone has got views on working from home, but how about working from an office very near to home? The Wall Street Journal (£) reports that airplane maker Boeing has opened a special staffed office just five minutes from its CFO’s home in Connecticut so he doesn’t have to commute 500 miles to HQ in Virginia. Rupert

• Theatre director Abbey Wright spoke to children about their experiences with porn, her insight that kids learn more about sex online than in school should give us all pause for thought. Toby

• Tara Kenny reports on a wave of Gen Z chess clubs (pictured above) popping up in nightclubs New York City, including one that mixes chess with trance music and another that’s adopted a “no mansplaining” policy. Rupert

• Are you a cat person or a dog person? Ellie Violet Bramley meets those who argue the answer should be neither and that having pets is unethical: “The boredom of animals is intense.” Toby

Sport

Cricket | In the space of a couple of weeks England’s Test captain Ben Stokes has gone from being history to making it, and in just his third match after reversing his decision to retire from one-day internationals, Stokes thrashed 182 off 124 balls, the highest score by an Englishman in the format, to inspire his side to a one-sided, 181-run win against New Zealand.

Football | Sarina Wiegman has said she is “very worried” about the state of the international calendar, with England players back in camp in order to prepare for two Nations League games less than a month after their World Cup final loss to Spain.

Tennis | Great Britain began their Davis Cup campaign with a brilliant win, defeating Australia 2-1. Jack Draper finished his long-awaited Davis Cup debut with an excellent comeback win, defeating Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (4). Dan Evans followed shortly after and, as Britain’s No 1 player of the tie, he played up to the occasion.

The front pages

The Guardian leads off with an exclusive: “Sunak blocked rebuild of hospitals riddled with crumbling concrete”. The i reports “Ban on energy firms force-fitting prepay meters leaves children under five at risk”. The Financial Times has “EU launches subsidy probe into Chinese electric cars”.

As the Labour leader visits The Hague to discuss small boat crossings, the Telegraph leads with “Starmer plots deal to take EU migrants”. The Times follows the same story with “Starmer vows to smash people-smuggling gangs”, while the Mail goes with “Labour ready to open door to EU’s asylum seekers”.

Finally the Mirror continues its series on the “Year of the shoplifter”, with the headline “Out of control”.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Daniel Christie

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

From art director Richard Turley, Nuts, the new kid on the block in the fashion magazine world, is shunning big-name models and brands and even more innovatively its planning to split its income equitably.

In a world in which money talks, specifically for those at the top, the new magazine is planning to upend conventions, writes Alex Rayner. Published entirely in black and white, and running to 418 pages, Nuts doesn’t employ any fancy big-name photographers or star models.

“Each magazine will have its own profit and loss statement,” says Turley, who is also the editorial and design director of Interview magazine. “Contributors have a stake in their specific edition, which they can earn and learn from.”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

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