The giant British energy company BP has announced that Meg O'Neill will begin serving as the company's CEO from April 1, 2026.
It should be noted that Meg O'Neill is not only BP's first CEO brought in from abroad, but also makes history as the first female CEO to lead one of the world's "TOP-5" major oil and gas companies. This appointment sends a strong signal to BP shareholders and market participants both operationally and in terms of communication.
BP's current CEO Murray Auchincloss will be stepping down from his roles as CEO and Director of the Board.
Meg O'Neill, who will lead BP starting from the second quarter of next year, was born in the state of Colorado, USA, and is currently a citizen of that country. Although her date of birth is not disclosed in publicly available sources, she is estimated to be approximately 55 years old.
She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of Chemical Engineering. Additionally, she earned a master's degree in Marine Systems Management.
Meg O’Neill has been the CEO of Australia's Woodside Energy, an oil and gas company established 71 years ago, since April 2021. Prior to that, she worked for 23 years in various technical, operational, and senior leadership roles as well as regional and global leadership positions at the American oil giant ExxonMobil in Houston, New Orleans, Indonesia, Canada, and Norway.
She is the chairperson of the Australian Energy Producers (AEP), the main body of Australia’s oil and gas industry and serves on the boards of the Australian Business Council and the American Petroleum Institute (API).
So why has BP focused its attention on this woman as its leader?
Recently, BP has begun to make strategic changes at the behest of its shareholders, more precisely, moving in a balanced manner from renewable energy back towards the traditional oil and gas sector. In this context, by inviting an experienced CEO from outside, BP intends to accelerate the improvement of the results it is focused on. O’Neill is a professional in line with investors’ demands who want BP to increase its income and capitalization performance more rapidly.
Ilham Shaban,
Head of the Oil Research Center
