Tony Hayward

Anthony Bryan Hayward (born 21 May 1957) is a British businessman and former CEO of the oil and energy company BP.

Tony Hayward was born in Slough, Buckinghamshire (now Berkshire), in 1957; the eldest son of Bryan and Mary Hayward.

Hayward has five sisters and one brother.

Growing up, Hayward moved frequently but, until a teenager, lived in or near Slough.

At the age of 15, when his sixth sibling was born, Hayward moved out of the family home and started living with his paternal grandparents in Langley (a suburb of Slough).

Later on, his family moved to Bournemouth, Dorset.

Hayward, however, remained in Berkshire living with his grandparents and attended a local grammar school, Slough Technical High School, until he started university.

Tony went on to gain a first class geology degree from Aston University followed by a PhD from the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences.

Joining BP in 1982, with his first job as a rig geologist in Aberdeen, he quickly rose through the ranks in a series of technical and commercial roles in BP Exploration in London, Aberdeen, France, China and Glasgow.

In 1992, Hayward moved to Colombia as exploration manager and became president of BP's operations in Venezuela in 1995.

In August 1997, he returned to London as a director of BP Exploration.

He became group vice-president of BP Amoco Exploration and Production as well as a member of the BP group's Upstream executive committee in 1999.

Hayward was appointed BP group treasurer in September 2000 where his responsibilities included global treasury operations, foreign exchange dealing, corporate finance, project finance and mergers and acquisitions.

Hayward first came to the attention of John Browne (later created, in 2001, Lord Browne of Madingley) during a 1990 leadership conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

As a result, he was made Browne's executive assistant.

Hayward became an executive vice-president in April 2002, and chief executive of exploration and production in January 2003.

Safety and production issues in Alaska and the explosion at the Texas City refinery made Peter Sutherland, BP's non-executive chairman, accelerate the process for finding a replacement for Lord Browne of Madingley.

On 18 December 2006, in the run-up to replace Browne as chief executive of BP Group, the Financial Times reported that Hayward had criticised BP's management at an internal management meeting, in the wake of a blast at the firm's Texas City refinery that killed 15 people and injured more than 170 others.

Hayward made the comments at a town hall meeting in Houston: "We have a leadership style that is too directive and doesn't listen sufficiently well. The top of the organisation doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying."

He replaced the Baron Browne of Madingley on 1 May 2007.

On 12 January 2007, BP announced that Hayward would replace Lord Browne of Madingley as chief executive.

On 2 February, Andy Inglis was appointed managing director of the BP Group, and succeeded Hayward as chief executive of BP's Exploration & Production (E&P) business.

Hayward was appointed to the chief executive position with immediate effect on 1 May 2007, after Browne resigned following the lifting of a legal injunction preventing Associated Newspapers from publishing details about his private life.

His retirement timetable was moved forward from end-2008, when Browne would be 60 and BP policy called for mandatory retirement, to July 2007.

Hayward, having been described as CEO-designate by both internal and media commentators, came to the fore amid the competition, including Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP, the company's Russian joint venture, and John Manzoni, head of refining and marketing.

BP was paying Hayward an annual salary of £1,045,000; his 2008 bonus was £1,496,000 and in 2009 his bonus was £2,090,000.

In 2008, Tony Hayward had private meetings with Igor Sechin, a close ally of Putin and a top figure of Russian military and security services, currently serving as a CEO of largest Russian oil company Rosneft.

The two negotiated on BP's deals with Russia.

On 12 May 2009, in a postgraduate lecture to Stanford Business School, Hayward analysed the role and organisation of the company for which he acted as chief executive officer.

During the lecture he stated to the business students that "...our primary purpose in life is to create value for our shareholders. In order to do that you have to take care of the world".

Hayward stated that his job might be at risk as a result of the spill, saying "we made a few little mistakes early on."

He received criticism for various statements he had made during the spill, including telling a camera man to "get out of there" during a photo-op on the shores of Louisiana.

On 30 May, he told a reporter "we're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused to their lives. There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back."

He was widely condemned for his comment which was perceived as selfish, and United States Representative Charlie Melancon (D-La.) called on Hayward to resign in the wake of this comment.

His tenure ended on 1 October 2010 when he was replaced by Bob Dudley following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

On 20 April 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, operated by BP.

Eleven people were killed in the blast and oil began to leak from the ocean floor at a rate variously estimated to be between 5000 oilbbl and 100000 oilbbl per day.

Hayward, and BP in general, initially downplayed the spill, stating on 17 May 2010 that the environmental impact of the Gulf spill would likely be "very very modest" and calling the spill "relatively tiny" in comparison with the size of the ocean.

By 27 May, Hayward changed his assessment, calling the spill an "environmental catastrophe" in an interview with CNN.

He was chairman of Glencore Xstrata from 2014 to 2021.