BP Appoints New Chair to Lead Shift Back to Fossil Fuels

BP has appointed a successor to its embattled chair, Helge Lund, as it breaks from its net zero strategy and pivots back to fossil fuels.

- Lauren Almeida

Albert Manifold, a former boss of the building material firm CRH, will join the BP board on 1 September as a non-executive director and as chair-elect before taking over on 1 October.

BP announced in April that Lund, the chair since 2019 and an important figure in the company's abandoned green push, would step down from his position "most likely during 2026". Lund also suffered an investor rebellion at BP's annual meeting amid pressure over its poorly performing share price.

The change comes amid a broader strategic shift at BP as it cuts back on green spending and refocuses on oil and gas after a botched bid to reinvent itself as a net zero energy firm.

Manifold was chief executive of CRH for a decade until the end of last year, and led the shift in the company's primary listing from London to New York in 2023.