Lord John
Browne, CEO of British Petroleum, resigned
Tuesday in the wake of an
unsuccessful four-month legal battle to keep the
public from learning about allegations made by gay former
lover Jeff Chevalier that Browne misused BP funds,
facilities, and staff for Chevalier's benefit,
according to the London Daily Mail.
In a legal battle
fought behind closed doors in the United
Kingdom's House of Lords, Browne, 59, sought to
keep the Associated Newspaper group--which
publishes the Daily Mail, Mail onSunday, and Evening Standard--from
publishing an interview with Chevalier, 27, a computer
operator from Toronto. At issue were not just details about
their liaison but also allegations that BP computers
and support staff were used to run Chevalier's mobile
phone business, that BP executives acted as
directors in the business, and that Browne's personal
assistant acted as secretary to Chevalier.
Chevalier shared
Browne's upscale lifestyle for four years, staying in
luxury homes--including one rumored to belong to Elton
John--traveling in private jets, and wearing
designer suits, according to the Daily Mail. It was
well-known by many that he was Browne's partner, and
he was invited to many high-profile events,
including dinner with Peter Mandelson, a former senior aide
to Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In an attempt to
discredit Chevalier before his allegations even
became public, Browne told the court that the young man was
"a liar, unstable, and adversely affected by
dependence on alcohol and illegal drugs." But medical
records proved this false.
After the U.K.
court lifted the injunction and the press broke the story,
Browne acknowledged in a statement that he had carried on a
four-year relationship with Chevalier. The oil tycoon
added that while he had been on the witness
stand, he had given an "untruthful
account" about how he and Chevalier first met.
(He had told the court initially that the couple met
while exercising in London's Battersea Park.) However,
Browne denied allegations of any mismanagement related
to the company.
BP chairman Peter
Sutherland confirmed that Browne told company
officials about limited use by Chevalier of BP computer and
staff resources. "At John's explicit request, the
board instigated a review of the evidence," said
Sutherland. "That review concluded that the
allegations of misuse of company assets and resources were
unfounded or insubstantive."
"For the
past 41 years of my career at BP, I have kept my private
life separate from my business life. I have always
regarded my sexuality as a personal matter, to be kept
private," Browne said in a statement. "It is
a matter of personal disappointment that a newspaper group
has now decided that allegations about my personal
life should be made public."
The abrupt
resignation means that Browne loses his entitlement to a
bonus, worth more than 3.5 million pounds ($7 million),
according to Reuters. He also forgoes a long-term
share plan with a potential maximum value of nearly 12
million pounds, or roughly $24 million.
According to
Reuters, Browne also may leave the board of investment bank
Goldman Sachs, where he has been a director since 1999.
Browne started
working at BP in 1966 and is credited with turning the
company around in the early 1990s with his work in
production, industry expansion, and exploration. He
was appointed chief executive in 1995. He was also
seen as a visionary, Reuters reports, because of his
environmental record. The company was among the first to
acknowledge global warming and invest in renewable
energy. BP was tarnished, however, by problems in the
United States, including a fatal accident in Texas and
a forced shutdown due to poor maintenance on an Alaska
pipeline.
BP has announced
that Browne will be replaced by his designated
successor, Tony Hayward. (The Advocate)
