Former BP chief executive Tony Hayward landed another new job yesterday, when he was named as interim chairman of commodity group Glencore Xstrata.
Mr Hayward, who famously told reporters at the height of BP’s US Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis in 2010 “I would like my life back”, will fill the chairman’s role at Glencore until a permanent successor to Sir John Bond is appointed.
The former energy company boss – now chief executive at oil investment company Genel Energy – was already a director of Glencore before a shareholder rebellion forced the firm into a string of senior management changes yesterday.
Sir John was ejected from the board by more than 80% of voting shareholders, while three other directors, Ian Strachan, Con Fauconnier and Peter Hooley were also ousted.
A fifth director, Sir Steve Robson, resigned earlier in the day.
The boardroom clearout removes Xstrata’s influence from the top of the company after its takeover by Glencore earlier this month sealed the biggest mining deal in history.
Mr Hayward, who started his career in Aberdeen as a rig geologist, claimed he had been “demonised and vilified” after quitting BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.
He was forced to step down from the oil giant’s board following outrage about the catastrophe, which killed 11 workers and saw millions of gallons of oil spilled into the sea.
Severely criticised for his handling of the crisis, he was not helped by comments such as “I want my life back” and “the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean; the amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume”.
His days were numbered when US president Barack Obama said he would sack him if he were his boss.
Sir John had already planned to quit Glencore after shareholders revolted over a controversial £140million pay deal to retain key Xstrata staff, but the vote brought forward his exit.
The firm has started the search for new board members after voting at its annual meeting in Switzerland left it with just four directors.
This month’s merger brought together Glencore’s commodity trading expertise and Xstrata’s mining clout to form a group which hopes to compete better against the might of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The takeover created a Switzerland-based company with more than 190,000 staff and 150-plus mines and production sites in more than 50 countries, led by Glencore boss Ivan Glasenberg.
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