BP’s changing of the guard: Woodside 2.0?
Meg O’Neill, will take on the role of chief executive of BP in April 2026. O’Neill, previously served as chief executive of Woodside Energy, was at the helm during an era of widening investor discontent over the company’s transition plans
Yesterday, the 18th of December, was BP chief executive Murray Aunchincloss’ last day in office. Meg O’Neill, Woodside Energy’s chief executive of four years, will now take the helm.
O’Neill’s arrival as CEO in April 2026 will, according to BP’s board, marks the beginning of a new growth era. One that will refine the fossil fuel behemoth into a ‘simpler, leaner and more profitable’ company.
O’Neill brings with her a legacy of leadership at Woodside that included an investor backlash against the Australian energy company’s climate transition plans. Will history repeat itself?
Transition planning
The history in question, is recent. Investor discontent over transition plans had brewed under O’Neill’s watch. In 2024, 58% of the company’s shareholders voted against Woodside’s climate transition plan.
That included votes from asset owners from Norway, UK, US and three major Australian superannuation funds.
O’Neill defended the plan and the company’s transition pathway. A year later, at the 2025 AGM in Perth, the company’s climate governance was put under unprecedented pressure.
19% of shareholders voted against the director re-election of Ann Pickard, the then chair of Woodside’s sustainability committee. Never before, had the company recorded that scale of backlash against a committee chair.
HESTA, an Australian superannuation fund, was amongst those in opposition.
“We have voted against the re-election of Ann Pickard as a director based on accountability for Woodside’s climate transition action plan as sustainability committee chair”, HESTA’s head of portfolio management Jeff Brunton said at the time, while noting Pickard’s contributions over the years.
Another sticking point at the AGM was an LNG project in Louisianna which would account for three-quarters of the company’s transition spend. A project O’Neill hailed a ‘game changer’.
Curious choice
“At Woodside, O’Neill has overseen high-cost, high-emissions investments at a company that has delivered 1% p.a. total shareholder return over 15 years and consistently underperformed its peers”, says Brynn O’Brien, executive director of research organisation ACCR.
The Louisiana LNG facility, a key milestone of the O’Neill era at Woodside, O’Brien says is ‘high-cost and near-bankrupt’.
O’Brien notes that a strategic reset at BP was necessary, but the choice of leadership will be vital to its delivery.
“BP is right to be resetting its strategy and focusing on capital discipline to improve investor returns. However, Meg O’Neill is a curious choice in this context”, she added.
Both boards view O’Neill’s leadership history positively. “Her proven track record of driving transformation, growth, and disciplined capital allocation makes her the right leader for BP”, said BP chair Albert Manifold. Woodside's chair Richard Goyder, in a statement, highlighted O'Neill's role in the company paying roughly $11bn in dividends since 2022.
FollowThis, a shareholder advocacy group that had previously welcomed Manifold’s arrival as chair, has questioned the choice.
“BP has chosen someone whose entire career is rooted in fossil fuels”, warns FollowThis founder Mark van Baal.
BP’s new era and the degree of centrality the transition will occupy, he says, is dependent on leadership. O’Neill’s arrival in that context, will come with expectations. “BP needs leadership that recognises the risks and opportunities created by the shift to clean energy”, said Van Baal.
“Investors have the authority to steer BP’s strategy. They can direct the company toward activities that safeguard long-term value and away from those that undermine it”, he adds.
Come April next year, at the dawn of the company’s new era, BP’s investors would expect to have their opinions heard at best and known at least. If recent AGMs at Woodside are anything to go by, that expectation has merit. History after all, might not always repeat itself. People, often do.
