Bernard Looney

Well, thank you, Tara, for your work and your leadership. I think 25×25 has focused in on such an important area around the role of the chief executive. And it’s our privilege and it’s my privilege to be part of it. And if we can help, we will.

Why is this topic so important? I guess it is very simple when it comes down to it, as at its core, it’s about fairness.

I’d like the world to be fair. I would like people to be able to have a chance to do what they want to do. And this chance shouldn’t be based on their gender; it should be based on their abilities. I think the data’s pretty clear. The world hasn’t been fair when it comes to women and careers.

I love bp and I want nothing more than for bp to be successful and to be brilliant. And to do that, you need great people and you need diverse teams with people that have different backgrounds and come from different places. And some of the best leaders that we have in the company are women. I want them to have the opportunity and I want them to help our company be successful. And by having teams that are diverse, we can do that.

So we’ve been focusing really hard at bp to make sure that women as well as men are getting the type of line leadership that may place them on the pathways to CEO i.e.: profit & loss leadership responsibility.

I just came back from Houston last week, and the Gulf of Mexico in bp is one of the most valuable businesses that we have in the company. It’s run by a woman, and she has a team of 14 people, ten of them are women. And really powerfully, the key operational and technical – big roles – are the head of operations, a woman, Laurie; the head of drilling, a woman, Sarah; and the head of projects, a woman, Fiona. And so you have this compelling team of people, and that gives me confidence.

We’ve just gone through a massive restructuring. We have 120 executives in the company. Now 40% of the senior executives in the company, which are P&L roles predominantly, are female. And we actually have an ambition to take that to 50% by 2025 – so gender parity by 2025.

A crucial step in allowing women the right to progress as they deserve is to make sure that they get the jobs that give them the experience that allows them to compete.