Former BP boss Bernard Looney ditched as campaigner for women in business

BP’s disgraced former boss has lost his role at a group campaigning for female representation in business.

Bernard Looney was forced to quit the oil giant earlier this week over personal relationships with staff.

And yesterday, he was removed from his position as lead ambassador for 25×25, an organisation lobbying for more female chief executives. The Irish businessman, 53, admitted he had misled an investigation into his personal relationships with colleagues.

Looney’s exit from 25×25, which is campaigning for 25 female FTSE 100 chief executives by 2025, was triggered when he quit BP on Tuesday night. The BP board launched a probe into his personal relationships with colleagues in May 2022 after an anonymous tip-off.

No breach of the company’s code of conduct was found at the time but Looney this week admitted he had not been ‘fully transparent’ with the investigation.

In an interview promoting the launch of 25×25 in 2021, Looney said: ‘I think the data’s pretty clear. The world hasn’t been fair when it comes to women and careers.’ He said that he aimed to make BP an ‘environment that is conducive for women to be successful’. But he admitted: ‘We’ve got loads of issues.’