BIG FAT STORY
If Dudley does too good a job, he might soon find himself with all of Tony Hayward’s responsibilities. Bloomberg BusinessWeek names him as one of the top candidates to succeed Hayward as CEO if Hayward gets the boot. His main competition, the magazine says, is Andy Inglis, who heads exploration
and production, and Iain Conn, who runs refining and marketing.
PRESUMPTIVE HEIR
The Next CEO?
Could succeed Hayward atop the oil company.
TAINTED?
Oil on His Hands, Too
Was in charge of American operations.
Though Dudley promises to put a more sympathetic face on BP, it’s not as though he didn’t play a role in the mismanagement that helped lead to this disaster. In fact, since becoming BP’s managing director in April 2009, Dudley has overseen BP’s American operations. At the time of his appointment, BP told Dudley to take a “top-level view,” rather than an operational one; now he finds himself in the thick of operations. Could the disaster have been avoided if he had taken a more “operational” view in the first place?
From Russia, with Dividends
RESUME
Dudley headed BP's Russian venture.
Guy Chazan of The Wall Street Journal must be pleased with BP’s decision to hand over the oil-spill reins to Dudley: He recommended him for the job last week. “If anyone can do the job, Mr. Dudley can,” Chazan wrote. He says the “soft-spoken and easy-going American” has a “strong resume”—most impressively, five years as CEO of TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint venture. Dudley withstood raids by the Russian federal security service and, under his watch, TNK-BP had the highest total return of all Russian oil companies, paying out more than $18 billion in dividends, but he lost a shareholder war and was forced to leave Russia in 2008 after his work visa was not renewed. Whether this type of professional success translate into the wherewithal to manage the oil spill, however, remains to be seen.
WORST JOB EVER
Robert Dudley, just handed the reins of BP’s oil-spill operations, must clean up monumental environmental and PR messes. Is he the right man for two of the worst tasks on the planet?
It’s easy to see why BP has chosen Dudley to be the face of its oil-spill response; the only question is why it waited so long. Unlike CEO Tony “I’d Like My Life Back” Hayward and Chairman Carl-Henric “Small People” Svanberg, Dudley has deftly handled his interviews. He conveys a technical expertise of the Gulf procedures without coming off as painfully unsympathetic or straying too far from the company line. Speaking at a press conference with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on June 7, Dudley eloquently humanized his employer:
“I know BP can feel like a big, faceless logo at times, but it’s like any other business—it’s made up of people, and thousands of them. I believe they get up in the morning each day believing they make a difference in the world. Some may be your friends, family, and neighbors here in the Gulf. They probably seem quiet now. We have many employees in Louisiana and other states around the coast. Our employees simply can’t believe this has happened. But it has. They want to make this right, they want to restore life back to the way it was around the Gulf. Because this is their home, and because they, and we, believe BP is a company that lives up to its responsibilities.”
One huge advantage Dudley has over Hayward: He grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and spent his summers in Biloxi and Gulfport. “I absolutely understand. I grew up on the Gulf Coast,” Dudley told Judy Woodruff when asked about criticism of BP. “I know those beaches down there. And this is a very difficult time for people. And it’s very difficult. A lot of BP people live and their families are down there in the Gulf Coast as well. It’s very personal for all of us.”
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