Who is the former BP chairman Albert Manifold?
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The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now we move to the ousted former BP chairman, who has said that no one raised any issues about his conduct before he was sacked two days ago. BP ousted the Dublin man, Albert Manifold, on Tuesday, saying the move follows serious concerns raised to the board related to important governance standards, oversight and conduct. Let's find out more about what's going on with business correspondent Emmett Oliver. Good morning, Emmett. Morning. When this happened a couple of days ago, everybody was wondering what in heavens had happened? Are we any clearer?
What led to Albert Manifold's dismissal from BP?
Well, it seems to be over the last 40 years, Clare, a bit of a clash of personalities and style, more than maybe very weighty or substantial issues and probably a little bit about managerial and sort of leadership style. That's what's kind of coming out of a statement. So Albert Manifold, just to give people a brief background. is a huge figure in Irish business. He was earning 12 million euros in total remuneration at CRH before he moved into this new role at BP. And it was very much seen as a big kind of a moment for Irish business to kind of penetrate the walls of British business at the highest level. Peter Sutherland, another well-known Irish business figure, had been previously at BP as well so this was sort of a slightly well-travelled terrain but nevertheless very much sort of recognised as a big achievement and it seemed to be going well initially there had been some question marks that Albert Manifold had no previous experience in the oil business he was in obviously building materials at CRH but nevertheless that was kind of got over but according to his statement this morning what happened as far as he's concerned at least is he arrived there
He's saying he refused to take the office of the previous chairperson of the company. He said he bought his lunch in a local cafe. He said he took taxis and trains and not a chauffeur driven car or limousine that was offered to him by the company. And he said he called out cost control of the company where he saw it when he saw excessive expenditure and he's claiming that the company or certainly people within the company didn't like this stance he was taking and didn't seem to appreciate it that's effectively what he's saying and he's describing what they've said about him as lies is the word he actually uses and Sky News have reported in the last 48 hours that he has look to the service of a legal firm.
So this looks like it's going to a bad place between the two sides, but there's really no way back for Albert Manifold in BP, whatever might happen in any litigation or so on. So it's a huge personal setback for him. And on the other side, what the company seems to be saying, and this is sort of channeled through the Financial Times and sources that they've contacted, is that his style was described as shouty was the particular word used and that he didn't necessarily have a good relationship with other fallow board directors and with other senior leaders in the company. So we're kind of left in a position, Clare, of sort of picking the bones out of it and trying to see, is there some kind of overall cohesive picture emerging?
Just when you look at it, I mean, he, as you were just saying there, he's saying I pushed hard, I challenged people directly. And then he talks about the characterisation of my conduct that is now being put about. And if you go back and look at what BP said when this announcement was made a couple of days ago, it was ambiguous enough to leave everybody wondering about Albert Manifold and about what had happened. When you say, oh, you know, there are issues around governance standards and oversight and conduct issues. I mean, it does leave you with questions in your mind as to what exactly went on. So you can understand why he feels aggrieved about that statement, particularly coming off the back of the dismissal of the former BP CEO, Bernard Looney, because people might just...
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