ESG Stuff

BP removes chairman Albert Manifold over governance issues 9

The board said the decision was unanimous. In a statement, Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director, described the board as having been caught off guard by what it found: "The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action."

The company did not elaborate on the specific nature of the concerns.

Ian Tyler has been named interim chair, BP said, with the board set to begin a formal process to identify a permanent successor: "The Board and leadership team have deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out, and the company is moving at pace to deliver it."

Manifold took up the chairmanship just last October. At last month's annual general meeting, just 81.8% of shareholders backed his election

Among the most consequential decisions of Manifold's short tenure: pushing out former CEO Murray Auchincloss and overseeing the selection of Meg O'Neill to succeed him — a hire that marked the first time BP had recruited an external CEO and the first time a woman had led one of the oil industry's largest players.

Tulsi Gabbard Exit Marks Fourth Woman to Leave Trump Cabinet 0

Apology Tour

Bank boss sorry after describing workers as 'lower value human capital' 7

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank’s plan to replace back-office staff with automation as replacing "lower-value human capital" with financial investment

Standard Chartered is cutting roughly 7,800 jobs—representing about 15% of its global back-office corporate support roles—over the next four years to make room for AI

After internal anger and blistering public criticism, Winters posted a formal apology for his "choice of words." However, he initially fueled the fire by attaching the full interview transcript to justify his broader context, drawing further criticism for being defensive

In his first attempt to quiet the storm, Winters leaned heavily into the corporate strategy rather than apologizing for the specific phrasing: "I said that lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation, and that we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value roles. That is what a responsible employer should do. We will continue to speak honestly about the impact of technological change, and we will continue to act responsibly in helping our people to adapt and succeed."

After a barrage of negative comments on his first post, Winters returned to LinkedIn later that day to offer an explicit apology for his phrasing: "I have received a lot of support for the messages in my previous post but still get questions about my choice of words, which I know has caused upset to some colleagues. For that I am sorry."

"I think the transcript makes it clear that I value our colleagues – all of them – most highly and that we are totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry."

JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon says bank chief's viral AI comment was 'inartful'

Dimon downplayed the viral backlash against Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters—who drew fire for saying his bank would replace "lower-value human capital" with technology—calling it an "inartful" slip-of-the-tongue from a friend.

Neopbabies and Dropout babies

James Murdoch to acquire New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network -1

Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 6

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow justified firing his entire Human Resources department by claiming they actively manufactured internal friction

The aggressive purge follows a brutal 97% collapse in Bolt’s valuation—crashing from an $11 billion peak in 2022 down to $300 million

Traditional HR has been entirely swapped for a skeletal "people operations" team, shifting the focus away from employee complaints and internal processes toward basic compliance training and empowering managers to make split-second decisions

Alongside gutting HR, Breslow rolled back employee-friendly benefits like four-day workweeks and unlimited PTO, claiming a culture of complacency had taken over and that 99% of his legacy workforce was simply unwilling to work hard

Ryan dropped out of Stanford in 2014 to launch Bolt

The Middle School Boy Man Babies Rule the World

Man Drives Cybertruck Into Lake to Test Elon Musk’s “Boat” Claims, and It Went About as Well as You’d Guess -10

"The passengers abandoned the vehicle and the driver was arrested."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk:

randomly tweeted that the vehicle would function as a rudimentary flotation device.

“It will even float for a while.”

“[The vehicle would be able to] traverse at least 100m [330 feet] of water as a boat.”

“Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.”

Jeff Bezos urges US government to stop taxing 50% of America — and claims doubling his taxes won’t help ‘that teacher in Queens' 400

Jeff Bezos backs Mamdani's tax on luxury second homes, but says Ken Griffin isn't the villain

Jeff Bezos on Zohran Mamdani’s big mistake: ‘When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them’