Tony Hayward, the former BP boss, had been appointed permanent chairman of Glencore Xstrata with immediate effect, the Johannesburg-listed resources firm said on Thursday.
Peter Grauer, Chairman of Glencore’s Nomination Committee, said Hayward had provided leadership of the board and proved himself to be outstanding to take on the role of chairman permanently.
“We continue to look forward to harnessing his in depth knowledge of the resources industry and of listed company governance to underpin the mandate given to him as Chairman to lead the Board in helping to deliver long term, sustainable returns for shareholders,” Grauer said in a statement.
This comes after the British newspaper, The Telegraph, had reported on Wednesday that Glencore was ready to reveal Hayward as the new chairman of the firm.
Hayward will be replacing Sir John Bond, who was dramatically ousted from the position of chairman at Glencore board early last year after 80 percent of institutional investors opposed his idea of retaining payments for Xstrata managers.
Hayward has been functioning as interim chairman at Glencore from late last May and is likely to leave his current job as CEO of Genel Energy. This, according to The Telegraph, could take place in the next 12 to 24 months.
Hayward was pushed out of BP almost five years ago for mismanaging the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The ex BP boss raised the ire of Americans when – during the Gulf of Mexico’s oil spill – declared: “I want my life back.” He made this claim in the aftershock of the oil spill that saw 11 people killed and BP left with about $40 billion in compensation costs.
Before big institutional investors ousted him, Bond had been the chairman of Xstrata and was expected to chair the enlarged company (Glencore Xstrata) until a successor was found. (VENTURES AFRICA)
