Demonised and vilified: Tony Hayward’s departure

Outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward told reporters he felt he had been “demonised and vilified” over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

He spoke as his successor, Bob Dudley, pledged to put the oil giant “on the road to recovery”. BP has crashed US$17bn into the red for the April-June period following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy – its first loss in 18 years.

Mr Hayward, who will step aside in October, told reporters at the time of the announcement that he had no major regrets about his leadership of the group since 2007 and that his decision to leave was a purely practical one.

He said: “This is a very sad day for me personally. Whether it is fair or unfair is not the point. I became the public face (of the disaster) and was demonised and vilified. BP cannot move on in the US with me as its leader … Life isn’t fair.”

He added: “Sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus.”

But the White House responded by saying BP has obligations and responsibilities for cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, regardless of who leads the company.

BP boss exit plan: who knows Tony Hayward?
Born in Slough in 1957 Mr Hayward was the oldest of seven children. He is an amateur triathlon athlete.

He gained a PhD in geology at the University of Edinburgh (fellow alumni include Gordon Brown) in 1982 and in the same year began working for BP as a rig geologist.

Speaking at Stanford business school in 2009 he said: "BP makes its money by someone, somewhere, every day putting on boots, overalls, a hard hat and glasses, and going out and turning valves."

Hayward's connections range from James Bond-esque meetings to the pie queue at Upton Park.

In 2008 he is known to have held private talks with Igor Sechin, a former top figure in the Russian military and ally of Vladimir Putin. The two reportedly negotiated on BP's deals with Russia.

Prince Charles will also be in his contacts book - the pair have discussed environmental issues and Hayward took part in the Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Forum at Clarence House in 2008.

But he is more likely to find himself standing next to Russell Brand in the stands at the Boleyn Ground - both men are loyal West Ham fans and among the famous faces sometimes spotted at home matches.

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BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said he is “deeply saddened” to lose Mr Hayward, but doubts over his future are also now beginning to rumble.

He has been criticised for being “absent” and even “invisible” when the company needed him most.

BP shareholder Robert Talbot, from Royal London, told Channel 4 News: “The jury is out… on him.

I think he’s got some impressing to so in the eyes of shareholders before we will actually feel entirely comfortable that he really is the right person to be chairman of the company going forward.”

Mr Hayward will receive a full year’s salary in lieu of notice, of £1.045m, alongside his pension pot which after 28 years at BP will have swelled to an estimated £10.84m by the end of the year.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been a disaster on an unprecedented scale – 11 men were killed in the explosion, the clean-up costs have surpassed a $1bn and the full extent of the environmental damage may not be known for years.

Who is Bob Dudley?
Mississippi-raised Bob Dudley is expected to smooth over US outrage as BP's "fixer" with his softly spoken Southern accent. But Mr Dudley is no stranger to controversy himself.

Best known as former chief executive of BP's 50:50 Russian venture TNK-BP, Dudley was pushed out of Russia by the group's shareholders in 2008 – after suffering police raids, back-tax demands, legal action, office bugs and visa issues.

He exited the country steeped in scandal, blaming the dispute on a campaign waged by BP-TNK's billionaire oligarch shareholders. BP also accused its Russian partners of calling in the security services to target staff seen siding with the oil giant. 

In the five years that Dudley led the TNK-BP formation however, the venture increased oil output 33 percent to 1.6 million barrels per day. Mr Hayward has previously described Dudley as "the management team's foreign secretary". 

The son of a naval officer, Dudley started out as a field engineer with Amoco in Texas, later taking on roles in Scotland, Russia and China. He joined BP through its meger with Amoco in 1998. He is currently managing director of the BP Group, responsible for the company's activities in the Americas and Asia. 

The 54-year old will become BP’s first non-British chief executive but will be based in London. The oil giant will be banking on Americans warming to Dudley's background – a thoroughly American childhood that led to a chemical engineering degree at the University of Illinois and an MBA at Southern Methodist University.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC partners, said: "They needed a new man at the helm. He is the one, as an American, who will lead the company forward for the next few years and they seem fairly content with that... I think it's a pretty sensible move."