BP removes chair Albert Manifold over ‘serious’ governance and conduct concerns

BP has removed its chair, Albert Manifold, with the oil company’s board saying it had “serious concerns about “important governance standards, oversight and conduct”.The FTSE 100 company announced Manifold’s departure with immediate effect on Tuesday, without giving further details. He lasted only eight months in the role.BP’s share price slumped by 9% in the minutes after the announcement just before lunchtime in London before recovering slightly to a6% decline, making it the FTSE’s top faller.Amanda Blanc, the senior independent director at BP and chief executive of the insurance company Aviva, said: “Albert has helped bring a welcome focus and pace to BP’s transformation. However, the board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action.”Manifold was appointed to BP’s board in October 2025, tasked with overseeing a change in the oil company’s strategy, refocusing on fossil fuel extraction, and ditching renewable energy investments.He rapidly ousted BP’s chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, after less than two years in the role, and hired Meg O’Neill to take over in December.Manifold is the second senior leader at BP to lose his job for conduct reasons within three years. Auchincloss’s predecessor, Bernard Looney, was forced out in September 2023 for failing to disclose sexual relationships with colleagues when he was made chief executive.Looney was later denied £32m in pay and shares after BP’s board said it had been misled.BP has appointed Ian Tyler, a board member, as interim chair with immediate effect. Tyler is a former chief executive of the FTSE 250 infrastructure group Balfour Beatty. He is also chair of Grafton Group, a FTSE 250 building supplies company, and a director at the FTSE 100 mining company Anglo American.