Meg O’Neill hit 100 days as bp’s chief executive last week. She marked it with a LinkedIn post. “We need to make fewer, better choices and hold ourselves to account,” she said. “Investors should be able to rely on us in the same way our customers do.”
It says a lot about how she plans to run bp. So what has actually changed in those 100 days, and what does it mean if you work there?
The new structure is in place
We covered the two-segment restructure last time. From 1 July, this came into effect. Upstream and Downstream, nothing in between. Gordon Birrell is running Upstream. Richard Harding is interim EVP for Downstream while bp recruits permanently. If your role sits close to either of those functions, you’ll have felt the effects already.
Senior leadership has changed too
Carol Howle, who was only recently made deputy chief executive, is retiring after 26 years at bp, one of several changes to the top team. Kerry Dryburgh, who led People, Culture & Communications, is also leaving after 16 years. Both will leave during Q3. Sam Skerry steps up to run Supply, Trading & Shipping, and Sonya Adams takes over People & Culture, both from 1 August.
bp isn’t framing any of this as fallout, though a new CEO reshaping her top team this early, on top of a board chair departure earlier in the year, is a lot for one organisation to absorb in a short space of time.
What “fewer, better choices” means
O’Neill’s language is deliberate. It suggests less spreading of capital and attention across every opportunity, and more concentration on where bp can actually win. Watch for that showing up in capital allocation, in which projects get greenlit, and in how performance gets measured and rewarded internally. If bonus and long-term incentive structures start shifting to reward fewer, clearer priorities, you’ll feel it in your pay packet.
What this means for you
If you’re mid-career at bp, someone coming up through the business right now, the honest answer is that a period of change like this creates both risk and opportunity. Risk, because reorganisations create uncertainty around roles and reporting lines. Opportunity, because new leadership teams often mean new gaps opening up, and new priorities that reward people who can demonstrate they fit where the business is heading.
We’ve had clients over the years, now retired after reaching senior leadership at bp, who’ve told us that periods exactly like this were where their own path picked up pace, whether that was 2010 and the years of divestment that followed, the 2015–16 downturn, or the 2020 restructuring under Bernard Looney.
Hard work still did the heavy lifting, but the openings tended to appear during moments of change. If you see yourself as one of bp’s future leaders, it’s worth remembering the people who got to where your own leaders are today likely came up through periods that looked a lot like this one.
If you’re closer to bp only through your shareholding, the practical question is simpler. Does this change how you feel about being concentrated in bp shares, and is your plan built to withstand a period of leadership change rather than depending on it going smoothly?
Either way, there’s no need to panic. Check your plan still makes sense given where the business is heading, not where it was two years ago.
If any of this has raised a question about your own situation, whether that’s share concentration, what a role change might mean for your award vesting, or simply making sense of what’s going on at bp right now, get in touch. We’re always happy to talk it through.
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