The chief executive officer of energy giant BP, Bernard Looney, has resigned from his position with immediate effect for failing to fully disclose details of past personal relationships with colleagues.
BP said in a statement that it received allegations from an anonymous source in May 2022 regarding Looney’s conduct with respect to personal relationships with company colleagues.
During that review of the allegations, Looney disclosed a small number of historical relationships with colleagues before becoming CEO and BP found no breach of its code of conduct. The company was given assurances by Looney regarding disclosure of past personal relationships as well as his future behaviour.
The UK giant added that it received further allegations of a similar nature recently and it immediately started an investigation with the support of external legal counsel. That process is ongoing.
Looney told BP on Tuesday that he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures and that he did not provide details of all relationships.
As a result, he resigned from the position effective immediately and BP appointed Murray Auchincloss, the company’s CFO, as an interim CEO. BP has not yet made a decision regarding any remuneration payments to be made to the now-former CEO.
Looney was appointed to the CEO role in February 2020 and immediately announced massive plans to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 and invest billions in renewables.
Looney certainly reached net zero.