I found Brooke Masters’ article on Bernard Looney, the BP chief executive forced to quit last week after admitting he had failed to fully disclose his past relationships with work colleagues (“Sex, lies and magical thinking about CEO behaviour”, Opinion, FT Weekend, September 16), overly harsh.
Masters says she did not have the inside track. But maybe the other party was married, or would have been embarrassed if the details were known? “A gentleman never tells” goes the motto after all, one which I will drum into my three sons. In Ireland we put a high store on such matters.
OK, the board has to have complete confidence in a CEO’s integrity, I get that, but disclosing who you are sleeping with should not be up for examination — unless, of course, there is a case for abuse, but there is no hint this is the situation here.
And if you work all the time — and Looney was known for his 5am emails — how can you meet anyone outside of work? All he did was sleep with a colleague and fail to mention this.
And maybe the reason he did not fess up all was because he was being considerate? I feel Masters should have at least put this forward as a possibility.
Mary McCarthy
Dublin, Ireland