Lord Browne moves to Glencore
I understand former BP chief executive Lord Browne is to be chairman of Glencore.
Update 12:12: Lord Browne's appointment as chairman of Glencore - the commodities colossus which is about to float on the London Stock Exchange - represents one of the great rehabilitations of a corporate reputation in modern times.
In May 2007, he resigned as chief executive of BP, ending a 41 year career at the company (much of it glittering), after it emerged that he had lied to the courts about the circumstances of how he met his former lover, Jeff Chevalier.
At the time, some shareholders in BP were also questioning whether he had been quite as successful in integrating and managing the enormous oil businesses he had bought, Amoco and ARCO, as he had been in buying them.
These concerns came to the fore after an explosion at its Texas City refinery in 2005 that killed 15 workers.
But after a period of avoiding the spotlight, Lord Browne has in the past year become something of a public figure, first by writing a report for the government on the reform of university finance - which prompted the controversial decision to increase university fees to up to £9,000 a year - and then by advising the Prime Minister David Cameron on how to recruit business leaders to be non-executive directors of Whitehall Departments.
Update 12:26: Now one of the slightly odd things about the appointment of Lord Browne is that another battered former chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, is already on the board of Glencore - as its senior non executive director.
You will remember that Tony Hayward quit the helm of BP only last autumn, after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that also caused fatalities and led to massive pollution of the Gulf of Mexico.
Now the role of the chairman and senior non-executive is to guard the interests of independent shareholders. So when Glencore floats on the London and Hong Kong exchanges in the next few weeks, new investors in the company will be looking to these two former BP lifers to protect them.
Update 13:10: I would imagine that investors will give a largely positive welcome to Lord Browne's appointment for two reasons.
First, they would see him as having a lot to prove - and therefore as having an incentive to work hard in their interests.
Second, he is famously tough. They would not see him as being vulnerable to being pushed around by the partners, who will continue to own around 80% of Glencore after the flotation.
In particular, Lord Browne would be viewed as having the backbone to stand up to Glencore's famously driven chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg.
And, for the avoidance of doubt, Lord Browne is taking on a proper job.
He will chair the world's largest supplier of commodities, which is based in Switzerland and whose profits after tax last year were $3.8bn.
Glencore confirmed only this morning that it will be listing on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges at a value of somewhere between $60bn and $70bn - or around £40bn.
So as and when the flotation takes place, Glencore will become something like the 15th most valuable company in the FTSE100 list of the biggest companies quoted on the London market.
Glencore's statement this morning makes clear that it wants to use its newly listed shares as currency for expansion and takeovers. It is widely believed that it will move quickly after listing to secure a merger with the mining giant, Xstrata, in which it holds a 34% stake.
The flotation will confirm that Mr Glasenberg is a multi-billionaire, worth almost $10bn based on his shareholding in Glencore - and hundreds of his Glencore colleagues will become multi-millionaires.
Update 14:54: In an extraordinary development, Lord Browne is now not going to be chairman of Glencore. I will explain what happened in a new post.
I'm 
Comment number 1.
At 12:03 14th Apr 2011, honestgradgrind wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 12:17 14th Apr 2011, watriler wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 12:17 14th Apr 2011, Averagejoe wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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At 12:24 14th Apr 2011, watriler wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 5.
At 12:35 14th Apr 2011, redrobb wrote:What part of retirement did he not understand, and here-in the problem with so called captains of industry or indeed politics that are still earning 100's of times the average pensioner or indeed UK worker earnings......Tell me does this one gentleman do anything gratis like the odd tokenist charity?
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Comment number 6.
At 12:50 14th Apr 2011, Lindsay_from_Hendon wrote:Lord Browne was shafted by BP. Good to see him back on the board of a very promising company.
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At 12:53 14th Apr 2011, jammydodger wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 8.
At 13:12 14th Apr 2011, Cassandra wrote:Averagejoe wrote:
"What a surprise. Jobs for the old boys club."
Drat! Beat me to it!
Can't we make it illegal for anyone to be a director or chief exec of more than one company? And I don't mean 'at one time', I mean ever?
It would give the rest of us a chance at the high life, and based on the clueless and ignorant directors of firms I've worked for I doubt the companies would be run any worse than they are now. In fact I'm sure I could do a *much* better job if I was only paid a few dozen times more than I am now . . .
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At 13:14 14th Apr 2011, kissjohnbrownesdirtyass wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 10.
At 13:15 14th Apr 2011, Jacques Cartier wrote:Robert's post on the Rosneft deal has attracted 18 responses so far. His latest post about greedy bankers has attracted 206.
Can we assume that banks are about 12 times as despised as oil companies?
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Comment number 11.
At 13:15 14th Apr 2011, Averagejoe wrote:7. At 12:53pm 14th Apr 2011, abune wrote:
Just had a quick look at Wiki, since I couldn't understand how he could lie to the court and not be prosecuted for perjury. Having read the entry, I am nothing short of gobsmacked. I knew the old boy's network was alive and well in England, but this really does cap it all. And now he lands another plum city job? I now truly believe that England has no lessons to hand out to any country in the world on corruption in public life.
.............
As Gordon Gecko says in Wall Street; "Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy?"
Its a plutocracy, and its never been move obvious.
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Comment number 12.
At 13:18 14th Apr 2011, jammydodger wrote:6. At 12:50pm 14th Apr 2011, Lindsay_from_Hendon wrote:
Lord Browne was shafted by BP. Good to see him back on the board of a very promising company.
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Interesting use of language in the circumstances!
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Comment number 13.
At 13:29 14th Apr 2011, watriler wrote:Update: Says it all about Cleggmeron Britain. Shamed Lord writes policy to tell ordinary folk they must pay more to complete their education and then becomes a exceptionally well paid 'intern' alongside a BP old boy who presumably unlike the Gulf rig workers has now got his life back!
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At 13:47 14th Apr 2011, Wee-Scamp wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 15.
At 13:48 14th Apr 2011, James wrote:When we are all made redundant in the next few years, I'm sure like Lord Browne and Tony Hayward, Glencore will be there to take up the slack and offer us all a job for life.
After all, just remember what they keep telling us....
We're all in this together.
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Comment number 16.
At 13:49 14th Apr 2011, DT Redditch wrote:Good luck to Glencore - not that they'll need it!
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Comment number 17.
At 13:59 14th Apr 2011, Sam_From_Hendon wrote:#10 No you can't, it's just that the ignorant in this county incorrectly blame the banks for everything.
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Comment number 18.
At 14:10 14th Apr 2011, Lindsay_from_Hendon wrote:12. At 13:18pm 14th Apr 2011, abune wrote:
6. At 12:50pm 14th Apr 2011, Lindsay_from_Hendon wrote:
Lord Browne was shafted by BP. Good to see him back on the board of a very promising company.
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Interesting use of language in the circumstances!
- It's not funny when you make it explicit!
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Comment number 19.
At 14:36 14th Apr 2011, jammydodger wrote:17. At 13:59pm 14th Apr 2011, Sam_From_Hendon wrote:
#10 No you can't, it's just that the ignorant in this county incorrectly blame the banks for everything.
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Ignorant? In Middlesex? Surely not, old chap! Anyway the knowledgeable in the rest of the counties also blame the banks.
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Comment number 20.
At 14:39 14th Apr 2011, cping500 wrote:I believe that Lord Browne' difficulties were personal, not corporate. I repeat my advice as a gay man to anyone who has a public office (and Chairperson of a company is a public office..) come out.
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Comment number 21.
At 15:09 14th Apr 2011, jammydodger wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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