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BP chair Helge Lund has announced plans to step down after a bruising tenure in which the oil major tried to pivot away from fossil fuels only to reverse course this year.
The company said on Friday that Lund, who has been chair since 2019, had notified the board of his plan to step down, “most likely during 2026”. The search for a successor will be led by Amanda Blanc, the board’s senior independent director, BP added.
Lund’s departure comes after BP in February ditched a radical five-year-old strategy to reinvent itself as a green energy company. The shift followed news that activist investor Elliott Management had built a near 5 per cent stake in the company and was pushing for sweeping changes after a long a period of underperformance.
The arrival of the US hedge fund heaped pressure on Lund, who had already become the subject of growing criticism from other shareholders.
Lund, who was previously chief executive of Norway’s Equinor and gas company BG Group, was given two main responsibilities when he took over as BP’s chair: to select a chief executive and to oversee the development of a new strategy.
His efforts on both fronts have run into trouble. Lund’s pick for chief executive, Bernard Looney, was dismissed for failing to fully disclose to the board past relationships with BP colleagues in 2023. Then the aggressive shift into renewables, which he steered with Looney, was finally abandoned in February.
“We don’t expect many to be surprised by this announcement,” said Biraj Borkhataria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “To several investors we have spoken to, Helge was seen as the chief architect of the prior strategy, while he also appointed the previous CEO, which ultimately led to material share price underperformance over many years.”
Some shareholders have also questioned how Lund has split his time between BP and Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker he has chaired since 2018 and whose share price has halved since last summer.
Lund’s successes at BP include overseeing its swift decision to exit Russia just three days after President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. BP was the first major western business to decide to leave, setting a precedent that most large western groups followed.
In 2022, BP also enjoyed the most profitable year in its 116-year history, reporting earnings of more than $27bn after the invasion roiled energy markets.
Last month Lund announced that BP would hire two new directors, expanding its board to 12 people in what was seen by some as an attempt to shore up his own position in the face Elliott’s activism.
However, after reversing the strategy to focus on green energy, other members of BP’s board recognised that Lund’s position had become untenable, according to a person familiar with some board members’ thinking.
Samuel Johar, chair of board advisory firm Buchanan Harvey, said it was the “correct decision” to prepare for Lund’s departure. “Amanda [Blanc] must now appoint a heavyweight chair who can restore credibility to BP and take a view on the CEO.”
Chief executive Murray Auchincloss, who has been under pressure to improve BP’s performance, was promoted to the top job after working as finance chief before Looney’s exit in September 2023.
In a statement, Lund said: “Now is the right time to start the process to find my successor and enable an orderly and seamless handover.”
Blanc said she would lead a “comprehensive search” for “candidates with the credibility and relevant experience to lead the board and continue driving management’s safe execution of the reset strategy”.
