The activist investor is gunning for Giulia Chierchia, seen as a driving force of the oil major’s push into green energy, which it regards as a failure
The activist hedge fund agitating for change at BP is pushing for the removal of its head of strategy but not its chief executive.
Elliott Management is understood to be unhappy at the continued presence in BP’s senior leadership team of Giulia Chierchia, who is the oil giant’s executive vice-president for strategy, sustainability and ventures.
The former McKinsey consultant was hired under Bernard Looney, the former chief executive, in 2020 and was seen as one of the key architects of BP’s push into green energy, which it has now largely reversed after prolonged underperformance in its share price.
Looney sought the advice of McKinsey in drawing up his strategy before hiring Chierchia to “ensure that sustainability is embedded at the top of BP and provide a single group-wide approach to strategy and capital allocation”.
Chierchia spoke in 2020 of how Looney convinced her to join on the basis that BP would not compromise its commitment to cutting emissions. “We will make choices, and those choices will be low carbon,” she said at the time.
BP has now scaled back low-carbon spending to less than $1 billion a year, compared with a previous goal to increase it to $5 billion. “The strategy team overall can be significantly curtailed, given the complete failure,” a person familiar with Elliott’s thinking said.
Elliott wants BP’s green architect out
The activist investor is gunning for Giulia Chierchia, seen as a driving force of the oil major’s push into green energy, which it regards as a failure
Giulia Chierchia at the Lisbon Energy Summit & Exhibition.
Giulia Chierchia, hired by Bernard Looney in 2020, is seen as one of the key architects of BP’s push into green energy
Emily Gosden, Energy Editor
Thursday April 24 2025, 6.40pm, The Times
The activist hedge fund agitating for change at BP is pushing for the removal of its head of strategy but not its chief executive.
Elliott Management is understood to be unhappy at the continued presence in BP’s senior leadership team of Giulia Chierchia, who is the oil giant’s executive vice-president for strategy, sustainability and ventures.
The former McKinsey consultant was hired under Bernard Looney, the former chief executive, in 2020 and was seen as one of the key architects of BP’s push into green energy, which it has now largely reversed after prolonged underperformance in its share price.
Looney sought the advice of McKinsey in drawing up his strategy before hiring Chierchia to “ensure that sustainability is embedded at the top of BP and provide a single group-wide approach to strategy and capital allocation”.
Chierchia spoke in 2020 of how Looney convinced her to join on the basis that BP would not compromise its commitment to cutting emissions. “We will make choices, and those choices will be low carbon,” she said at the time.
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BP has now scaled back low-carbon spending to less than $1 billion a year, compared with a previous goal to increase it to $5 billion. “The strategy team overall can be significantly curtailed, given the complete failure,” a person familiar with Elliott’s thinking said.
Elliott has amassed an interest of just over 5 per cent in BP, making it the oil giant’s second largest investor. The stake is the hedge fund’s largest ever investment in Europe.
Person pumping gas at a BP gas station.
Elliott wants BP to go further than its recent “reset” and abandon its renewable energy plans completely
JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
It is understood that Elliott is not pushing for the removal of Murray Auchincloss, BP’s chief executive, despite its dissatisfaction with his performance. Auchincloss was Looney’s chief financial officer for most of the push into green energy but in February revealed a “fundamental reset” of BP’s strategy to refocus on fossil fuels and slash green spending.
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Elliott is understood to regard Auchincloss’s plans as unambitious and lacking in urgency and is pushing for further spending cuts across the board and a complete exit from renewable power. However, it believes it would be unhelpful for BP to change its chief executive at the same time as it searches for a new chairman. Helge Lund announced his plans to retire shortly before BP’s annual general meeting at which a quarter of investors voted against his re-election.
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Elliott is also understood to be preoccupied with the poor performance of BP’s “downstream” refining and marketing operations since the departure of the former divisional head Tufan Erginbilgic, now the toast of investors as the chief executive of Rolls-Royce.
“The downstream operations were in excellent shape under Tufan; last year they barely made any profit,” the person familiar with Elliott’s thinking said, adding it was “not clear who should be held responsible for the poor performance”.
Responsibility for the downstream division is split between Gordon Birrell, head of production and operations, and Emma Delaney, head of customers and products. BP and Elliott both declined to comment.