Today I read the story about John Browne’s resignation from BP after truly taking the company into great new profitable waters. Why? Cause he had to admit he was gay. Well, and that he lied at a previous inquiry regarding the matter, but for a loss of a reported $30MM in retirement, etc., why?
His fall seemed all the more magnified after his rise to the top at BP, the company where he had worked since he was a university student. He had already been forced to announce an early retirement after the energy company suffered problems relating to its safety record, including an accident at its Texas refinery that killed 15 workers.
Now he said he would step down immediately, three months earlier than planned, in a resignation that could cost him more than $30 million in retirement and stock benefits. Perhaps just as damaging, he is haunted by personal exposure in newspapers worldwide, a highflying career brought low by a spat with a local newspaper, The Mail on Sunday.
At the height of his powers, Mr. Browne had been knighted in 1998 and Prime Minister Tony Blair made him a life peer in 2001, a token of the close relationship between the company and the prime minister.
BP called his resignation a “tragedy.�
Source: New York Times
