BP chair Lund to step down amid calls for change – Daily Business

BP chairman Helge Lund is to step down just weeks after an activist investor stepped up calls for boardroom changes.

Dame Amanda Blanc, as senior independent director, will lead the search for a successor who will join the board and work with Mr Lund before he leaves next year.

The company said that while the sucession process progresses, its focus will remain on overseeing chief executive Murray Auchincloss’s delivery of the new strategy which involves diluting its green commitments.

Mr Lund said: “Having fundamentally reset our strategy, bp’s focus now is on delivering the strategy at pace, improving performance and growing shareholder value.

“Now is the right time to start the process to find my successor and enable an orderly and seamless handover. The board and I are committed to supporting Murray and his team, and to overseeing bp’s delivery of its strategic and financial objectives as we set out in our recent capital markets update.”

The move comes as Elliott Management has been agitating for change on the board and has held meetings with other shareholders.

Reuters, the news agency, said the New York hedge fund wants the board to go further than the “fundamental reset” announced by Mr Auchincloss last month and also wants to see steeper cost cutting.

Mr Auchincloss has switched the focus back towards fossil fuels after easing back on its green target, and has put its Castrol lubricants business up for sale.

Investors have been unhappy with BP’s share price performance compared with its rivals, particularly Shell which has significantly scaled back its green business.

Elliott, which holds a near-5% stake in BP, was said to be leading calls for a new chairman to replace Mr Lund, who has been in charge since 2019, and possibly Mr Auchincloss himself.

It wants BP to be more radical on asset sales, offloading part of its petrol station network and working towards a total exit from renewable power generation.