On Monday, July 26, the board of directors of the British Petroleum Company, known now as BP, met to consider the fate of Tony Hayward, its Chief Executive Officer. I think that it was a foregone conclusion that BP had to separate itself from the honorable Dr. Tony Hayward.
In the British way of doing such things, they are polite about such matters. They don’t just fire a man, as would be the case in this country. But rather they give him what is known as “the sack.” No two ways about it, Tony Hayward was fired or, in more polite terms, given the sack. He is no longer the chief executive officer of British Petroleum as of October 1st. But having been sacked, he will be involved in a joint venture in Russia having to do with one of BP’s holdings. Whether he gets to keep his $6 million salary is another matter unaddressed. I suspect that he will have to take a pay cut.
Tony Hayward holds all kinds of degrees from Glasgow University including a Ph.D. That was not enough for him to avoid some egregious gaffes. In the beginning, he assured the American public on television that the leak in the oil line in the Gulf of Mexico was a small matter and would be taken care of very promptly. That of course did not happen and at the current reading it is the 99th day of the spill.
Then it was decided by Mr. Hayward and his bosses that a public relations campaign should be undertaken with Hayward as its main spokesman. I dictated an essay not long ago complimenting Hayward on his diction of the English language. But in that television campaign, Dr. Hayward also said that he wanted his life back. Somehow he forgot about the eleven men who were killed in the explosion while they were drilling his well.
In further television comments we were told that there were a variety of measures to kill the well. As you will recall, none of them succeeded. Hayward was eventually called before a committee of Congress and mostly avoided answering their questions. On the Saturday after his testimony, as soon as the Congressional hearings were finished, Hayward hurried home to be involved in a yacht race involving his own boat. This did not receive favorable attention here or in Great Britain. For all of his academic achievements, Hayward had no real sense of how the average man felt about his company.
Now in the 99th day of the spill, it appears that there is a cap that seems to be holding the oil flow back. But that was not enough to save Tony Hayward’s job. My guess is that Tony Hayward just doesn’t get it. He seems to be oblivious to the consequences of the oil spill, particularly as they relate to what his boss calls “the small people” around the Gulf of Mexico. But Tony Hayward is a man who owns a yacht that seems not to be interested in such small things as the suffering of the people who fish for a living around the Gulf.
So come October 1st, Tony will be gone and will be succeeded by a man named Bob Dudley, who sports a degree from Mississippi State University. Some time ago, American voices replaced Tony Hayward in the television commercials that were designed to convince us that the oil spill was beneficial to all of us. Once Dudley was identified as the new chief executive officer, he began to pronounce the word “oil” as it should be pronounced. Prior to that time, he pronounced the word as something resembling “all.” But now that he has been promoted come October 1st, he has gotten the message and he pronounces the word oil in a proper fashion.
I have no intention of hitting a man when he is down, but if any man ever asked to be kicked, it was Tony Hayward. The yacht racing incident put a cap on a long series of his executive gaffes. My guess is that when he arrives in Russia, he might be inspired to look for a different job. But now we have Bob Dudley, the Mississippi State graduate, running BP and we have no choice but to hope for the best.
And as for Tony Hayward, you might say that this Midwestern American still admires his diction when he uses the English language, but there is very little else to admire in this whole catastrophe.
E. E. CARR
July 27, 2010
Essay 478
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Kevin’s commentary: He’s an ass and it bugs me that he’s going to be set and content for the rest of his life. I imagine that by this point the guy has more than he could conceivably spend. Ugh
I think this may be the last Hayward essay, but for those just tuning in, this essay certainly is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Pop’s opinions on this particular issue. View the rest here:
A PROUD SAXON
ANOTHER CLOWN STORY
FATHER’S DAY BAFFLEMENT
“…SMILING BASTARDS…”
RAMPANT NOSTALGIA
GIVING A (Insert Adjective) RAT’S ASS
SEND IN THE CLOWNS