{"id":696672,"date":"2026-05-26T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696672\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:38:11","slug":"bp-removes-chair-albert-manifold-over-serious-conduct-and-governance-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696672\/","title":{"rendered":"BP removes chair Albert Manifold over ‘serious conduct and governance concerns’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BP has removed its chair, Albert Manifold, over serious concerns about “important governance standards, oversight and conduct”.<\/p>\n

The oil company said the move was effective immediately and came only eight months into his tenure.<\/p>\n

BP’s senior independent director, Amanda Blanc, said the board had been “surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action”.<\/p>\n

The BBC reported<\/a> Mr Manifold’s departure was due to concerns about “bullying” and his “overbearing” behaviour.<\/p>\n

Mr Manifold later pushed back against what he described as a “false narrative”.<\/p>\n

“I was removed \u200cwithout warning and without explanation,” Bloomberg \u200cNews quoted Mr Manifold as saying \u200cin an \u2060emailed statement.<\/p>\n

“I dispute entirely the characterization of my conduct and I will not \u2060allow a false narrative to \u200cgo unchallenged.”<\/p>\n

Shares dropped 4 per cent after the news was announced.<\/p>\n

Mr Manifold was appointed to the role in October last year, as the company pivoted back to fossil fuels.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Wind<\/p>\n

Clean energy projects led by BP have been reeled back.\u00a0 (Supplied: BP)<\/p>\n

Last June, the company backed out of its majority share in a $55 billion green energy hub in Western Australia’s Pilbara region<\/a>, dealing Australia’s clean energy transition another major blow.<\/p>\n

Ian Tyler, who has been with the company since April 2025, was appointed interim chair.<\/p>\n

Mr Tyler said the board continued to have a “deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out”.<\/p>\n

“BP is building a track record of strong underlying operational performance and a tight focus on financial discipline, all in the pursuit of growing shareholder value and returns,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Meg O’Neill resigns as Woodside CEO to join BP<\/a><\/p>\n

The chief executive of Woodside, Meg O’Neill, resigns from the company effective immediately in order to take up the same role at BP.<\/p>\n

Mr Tyler also moved to endorse chief executive Meg O’Neil, who came into the role last month.<\/p>\n

Ms O’Neil was formerly the chief executive of Australian oil and gas producer Woodside, and oversaw its controversial North West Shelf gas project extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“She has already taken bold action to simplify and strengthen the organisation, such as announcing the move to a clearly defined upstream\/downstream model,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Under her leadership, we are building a simpler, stronger, more valuable BP.”<\/p>\n

A search for a permanent BP chair will begin soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BP has removed its chair, Albert Manifold, over serious concerns about “important governance standards, oversight and conduct”. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[218877,64,63,120654,339626,99],"class_list":["post-696672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-albert-manifold","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bp","tag-bp-chair","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}