Bob Dudley

Robert Warren Dudley (born September 14, 1955) is an American businessman who is a former group chief executive of BP. He had been president and chief executive of TNK-BP and on June 18, 2010, was assigned to be BP executive in charge of the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization responding to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He is the chair of the international industry-led Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI). He is a former board member of Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy giant.

Early life Dudley was born in Queens, New York, grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1973. He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi and served as District 3 Archon. He then obtained a master of international management (MIM) degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (now part of Arizona State University) and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

Career U.S. President Barack Obama meets BP executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, June 16, 2010. Pictured, from left, are BP CEO Tony Hayward, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP General Counsel Rupert Bondy, BP Managing Director Robert Dudley, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Attorney General Eric Holder, Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Dudley joined Amoco in 1979. He worked in a variety of positions including negotiating deals in the South China Sea. He worked in the oil industry for a long time including Amoco in Moscow from 1994 to 1997. He became a general manager for strategy. After BP acquired Amoco he assumed a similar position at BP. He was appointed when BP went into partnership with a group of Russian billionaires known as AAR. The deal was worth $6billion (£3.6billion at the time). Under Dudley, the joint venture increased oil output by a third to 1.6 million barrels per day. However, he fell out with AAR, who accused him of favouring BP. Disputes escalated and reached a point where BP's technical staff were barred from working in Russia. In June 2008, Bob Dudley left Russia in haste when his visa was not renewed. At the time, he said he had faced "sustained harassment" from the Russian authorities. For five months, he attempted to run TNK-BP from an undisclosed secret location outside Russia but resigned in December 2008.

On April 6, 2009 he became a managing director of BP, and was given oversight of the company's activities in the Americas and Asia.

On July 27, 2010, BP announced that Dudley would succeed Tony Hayward as their group chief executive on October 1, 2010. Dudley was also appointed to the board of directors.

In March 2013, Dudley was offered a seat on the board of Rosneft, the Russian state-owned energy company. Dudley left the board of Rosneft in February 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Dudley retired in 2020, and was succeeded by Bernard Looney. The company’s chairman, Helge Lund, said it was “logical time for a change,” with BP in the midst of a global “energy transition.”

In July 2021, Dudley joined Axio Global a cyber risk management software company, as chairman. Dudley was also part of a consortium of investors in Axio's Series B $23M financing round, led by Temasek's ISTARI.

In August 2022, Dudley joined the board of 8 Rivers Capital.

Personal life Dudley is married to Mary Dudley, and they have two children.