By Zilber
Two top women executives at BP are leaving the company – the first major change to the firm’s management structure since last year’s departure of CEO Bernard Looney, who abruptly quit after it was learned that he failed to disclose relationships he had with colleagues.
Leigh-Ann Russell, BP’s chief technology and innovation officer, will depart the company after an 18-year stint while Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, who has been head of BP’s gas and low-carbon division since 2022, will retire, according to a statement.
The company said it was “simplifying its organizational structure” which will “reduce duplication and reporting line complexity.”
Looney’s former chief of staff, Emeka Emembolu, will replace Russell while William Lin will assume Dotzenrath’s role, according to BP.
The company’s slimmed-down management team will reduce the leadership from 11 people to 10 while the number of women executives will fall from six under Looney to five.
Murray Auchincloss, who replaced Looney in January, said the moves would “reduce complexity within BP” while helping it become a “simpler, more focused and higher value company.”
Looney resigned in September and was denied a $40 million severance after he was found to have misled the company over prior relationships with colleagues that took place before he ascended to the CEO position in 2020.
Looney took on the role in February 2020 after spending his career at BP, having joined as an engineer in 1991.
He was replaced by Auchincloss, the former CFO, on an interim basis in September. Auchincloss was confirmed as the full-time CEO in January.
BP conducted an internal review in 2022 after receiving allegations about personal relationships between Looney and other company employees.
During that review, Looney disclosed a “small number” of relationships that occurred before he became CEO in February 2020, and the oil and gas giant found that there had been no breach of company rules, BP said.
The company said it recently began a second investigation after receiving more allegations of a similar nature.
Looney resigned after accepting that “he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures,” BP said. “The company has strong values and the board expects everyone at the company to behave in accordance with those values,” BP said. “All leaders in particular are expected to act as role models and to exercise good judgment in a way that earns the trust of others.”
