Bernard Looney is facing calls to step down from his role as a mentor to women in the City after he quit BP over claims he had been having romantic relationships with female staff.
The oil giant’s former boss has held a senior role at the Mentoring Foundation for almost a decade.
The non-profit organisation sees leading City figures coach a senior woman from another company in order to help them gain board level positions.
But last night Looney, 53, faced pressure to quit the programme. He resigned at BP last month after the company launched an investigation into his behaviour with the help of external lawyers.
He admitted that he had not been ‘fully transparent’ with the board.
Ousted: Former BP chief exec Bernard Looney (pictured) quit the oil giant over claims that he had been having romantic relationships with female staff
The Irishman was renowned for promoting women, but was recently accused of promoting BP women with whom he had undisclosed relationships. Caroline Nokes, the Conservative MP for Romsey, said: ‘Mentoring is such an important part of helping women get promoted on to boards.
‘But so many incidents recently make it feel as if the City, and business more widely is having its “me too” moment.
‘I would question whether any organisation needed to be associated with someone who had, in their own actions, undermined what we know to be true, that women can and do get promoted on their own merits.
‘We need more women on boards. Diversity of thought and experience is crucial and positive. Mentoring is a vital part of that.
‘But it needs to avoid pandering to hugely outdated, and in some cases misogynistic, tropes.’
Businesswoman and campaigner Gina Miller said: ‘He [Looney] shouldn’t be there. The foundation has a duty of care to the women who are being mentored. They should be supporting these women.
‘It’s a strange oversight. Have they asked the women he is mentoring to see what their views are? How do they feel about it? That should be the bare minimum.’
A former senior BP employee said: ‘I can’t see how he can hold onto this position as a mentor given what happened.
‘His reputation precedes him.’ Looney has been involved with the Mentoring Foundation for several years.
‘The role is believed to be unpaid. Five years ago he held a dinner for ten businesswomen at BP’s headquarters in London where topics included ‘successful career strategies and contemporary leadership issues’.
Senior role: Bernard Looney pictured at a dinner for mentees and alumni of the Mentoring Foundation at BP’s headquarters in 2018
Looney is quoted on the organisation’s website saying: ‘We need more women in our boardrooms and we need to support them in getting there.’
The website says that its programme ‘sees chairmen and chief executives mentor senior women from just below the board to become credible board candidates or otherwise to progress their careers.’
Women who have benefited from the programme include John Lewis boss Dame Sharon White and Ruth Cairnie, who is chairman at Babcock and a non-executive director at Associated British Foods and BT. There is no suggestion that either women have been mentored by Looney.
The foundation, which declined to comment, lists a number of high-profile mentors, including Asda chairman Stuart Rose, Ian Cheshire, chairman at Channel 4 and HSBC chairman Mark Tucker.
Looney’s demise is the latest scandal to engulf BP. Previous boss Lord Browne was forced to quit over revelations about his private life in 2007.
His successor, Tony Hayward, stood down over his handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. Looney’s exit has raised questions over the future of BP’s green agenda.
He was seen as the driving force behind BP’s energy transition plans, including a target to hit net zero by 2050 or earlier by slashing oil and gas production and investing in renewables.
