Tony Hayward

On 18 June, the day after Hayward appeared before the congressional hearing, the chairman of BP said that Hayward would step away from daily involvement in the company's efforts in the Gulf. On 19 June, the day before Father's Day, Hayward was in Cowes – having taken a "day off" – to see Bob, his co-owned boat, participate in the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island yacht race off the Isle of Wight. Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, said that Hayward had committed yet another in a "long line of PR gaffes" by attending the race while the Gulf oil spill continued.

In March 2013, Hayward was appointed chairman at UK-based gas-to-liquids company CompactGTL.

Hayward's involvement in Deepwater Horizon left him a highly controversial public figure. In May 2013 he was honoured as a "distinguished leader" by the University of Birmingham, but his award ceremony was interrupted several times by jeers and walk-outs.

In July 2013 his award of an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University was described as "a very serious error of judgement" by Friends of the Earth Scotland.

In 2012 Hayward divorced Maureen Fulton; they had been married for 27 years.

Hayward is chairman of Genel Energy, an oil company with production facilities in Iraqi Kurdistan. Genel Energy was formed in 2011 by the merger of Hayward's venture firm Vallares with the Turkish oil firm Genel Enerji.

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 5,000 barrels (790 m) and 100,000 barrels (16,000 m) 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.

BP announced on 27 July 2010 that Hayward would be replaced by Bob Dudley as the company's chief executive effective as of 1 October 2010.

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".

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 Lord Browne a replacement. His retirement timetable moved forward from end-2008, when Browne would be 60, when 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 January 2007 BP announced that Hayward would replace Lord Browne 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 Lord Browne resigned following the lifting of a legal injunction preventing Associated Newspapers from publishing details about his private life.

On 18 December 2006, in the run-up to replace Lord 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."

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

Hayward was a member of the Citibank advisory board, from 2000 to 2003. Hayward is presently senior independent non-executive director of Corus Group, appointed in April 2002, and a non-executive director of Tata Steel. Hayward is a committee member of Audit, Nominations and Health, Safety and Environment. Hayward was appointed a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute in September 2005.

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.

Anthony Bryan Hayward (born 21 May 1957) is a British businessman and former chief executive of oil and energy company BP. He replaced John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, on 1 May 2007. His tenure ended on 1 October 2010 when he was replaced by Bob Dudley following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He has been chairman of Glencore Xstrata since May 2014.

Tony Hayward was born in Slough, Berkshire, in 1957; the eldest son of Bryan and Mary Hayward. Tony has five sisters and two brothers, the youngest sibling is adopted. Growing up Tony moved frequently but until a teenager lived in or near Slough. At the age of 15 when his sixth sibling was born Tony 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. Tony 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. Hayward first came to Lord Browne's attention during a 1990 leadership conference in Phoenix, Arizona. As a result, he was made Browne's executive assistant.