The curse of BP's top job

Chief executive of BP has been something of a cursed role, if recent history is anything to go by. Tony Hayward is just the latest boss to get the heave-ho in dramatic circumstances from what was once Britain's biggest company. Hayward's predecessor, Lord Browne , also left in a hurry. He wanted to stay on longer than the traditional retirement age but became involved in a nasty spat with the then-chairman, Peter Sutherland. Browne was transformed from the all-conquering Sun King – as the FT described him – to a mere mortal after the Texas City refinery fire and Alaskan pipeline accidents badly knocked the share price. David Simon, Browne's predecessor, managed to survive his tenure unscathed but only, it is said, because he had a brilliant head of exploration who made lots of money for the company – Browne. Before Simon, Robert Horton was both chairman and chief executive at one stage but was forced out after a series of mishaps culminating in the cutting of the dividend in 1992. The question now is what will happen to Bob Dudley, who takes over from Hayward on 1 October. He has already had enough scrapes in life, having been forced to flee Russia when the Kremlin turned nasty over the joint venture TNK-BP. But if the full investigations into the Gulf of Mexico blowout find BP materially to blame, who will the curse fall on – Dudley or chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg ?