Svanberg of Ericsson will be BP’s chair
BP chief executive Tony Hayward said the firm would benefit from Swedish Svanberg’s experience in emerging markets and in dealing with governments.
Svanberg, who will be replaced at Ericsson by its chief financial officer Hans Vestberg, said he planned no major strategic changes. He will be paid £600,000 a year.
Svanberg, who takes over on 1 January, will be London-based and will stay on as a non-executive director at mobile phone firm Ericsson. It will be his first oil industry role.
“Peter Sutherland has been an outstanding chairman, guiding the company through one of the most successful periods in its history. He will be a hard act to follow,” Hayward said. Sutherland has been chairman of BP for the last 12 years.
Svanberg led a successful turnaround of the then loss-making Ericsson, slashing jobs and costs, before building it into one of the strongest companies in the sector.
However, a profit warning in 2007 shortly after the company made bullish comments to analysts, dented confidence in Svanberg and his management team.
One of Svanberg’s key tasks at BP will be to help improve relations with the oligarchs at its troubled Russian oil joint venture TNK-BP.
“Svanberg comes with a mixed reputation,” Christine Tiscareno of Standard & Poor’s said.
CARL-HENRIC SVANBERG
NEW BP CHAIRMAN
Carl-Henric Svanberg, chairman-designate of BP, has a strong record of growing and fixing companies, but many analysts and investors know him best for presiding over a shock profit warning.
Svanberg, 57, has been chief executive of Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson since 2003 when it was heavily loss-making.
He is credited with restructuring and building Ericsson into one of the strongest players in the sector, with revenues of $27bn (£16.5bn) last year and more than 70,000 employees.
“The departing chief executive effected a major turnaround in the company,” Morgan Stanley said.
Gareth Jenkins at UBS said Svanberg had been “a good presenter of the business and steward of the company,” through difficult times.
His reputation was dented in 2007 after a shock profit warning.
But Svanberg said he was proud of the time he spent at the telecoms company.