May 3rd, 2007, 15:42
Bonfire of the Vanities? Browned off?
Daily Telegraph London
Why I don't feel sorry for Browne
By Liz Hunt
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/05/2007
Never did a master of the universe appear less deserving of the title. From the drooping myopic gaze to the vague half-smile, and with hands seemingly always clasped neatly before him, his demeanour is that of a particularly dapper ma├оtre d'.
In the early days, perhaps this lured rivals into underestimating the pint-sized BP executive who lived with his mother and harboured a passion for opera and obscure, ethnic art.
They lived to regret it as he showed the daring, vision, cunning and ruthlessness that had him lauded as the most brilliant businessman of his generation, the saviour of a floundering company on which 97,000 employees and numerous pension funds depended.
Until this week, I was barely aware of Lord Browne of Madingley and this awesome reputation. How sad it is, I thought, on hearing of the resignation of BP's group chief executive after revelations of a gay affair, that in this age of touchy-feely enlightenment, a man like that still feels that he cannot be open about his sexuality.
And what a pity, I mused, that after serving 42 years with the same company, he'll miss out on the ┬г15 million in cash and shares he would have received if he'd retired as planned in July.
Now, having picked my way through a story that has all the elements of a Bonfire of the Vanities for the Noughties - big business meets tabloid kiss-and-tell masquerading as a morality tale - I feel less well disposed towards the so-called Sun King of the oil industry.
Discovering that his lordship leaves with shares and pensions rights worth more than ┬г50 million is one factor. Another is that at a time when BP was facing an ever-more turbulent business environment, the man at the helm was preoccupied with fallout from a disastrous affair and, allegedly, intermingling company affairs with personal business interests.
However, it is the realisation that Lord Browne's fall from grace has little to do with a desperation to keep his sexual preferences secret, and everything to do with arrogance, hubris and an assumption that he could lie with impunity to destroy someone to whom he was once close, that has exhausted my reserves of sympathy.
If, as claimed yesterday, he selected his troubled lover, Jeff Chevalier, from the website of a gay escort agency, he was taking a risk. But what else would you expect from a high roller of the business world?
And, irrespective of how they met, they were an item for four years. Lord Browne introduced Chevalier to friends and colleagues as his partner, and lavished money on him. When his visa expired, he paid for the young Canadian to remain here as a student. He wanted them to be together.
It may have been just about sex, but isn't it more likely that for Browne, an only child whose closest adult relationship had been with his mother, the handsome Chevalier represented everything he felt he had missed out on in those decades of relentless hard work?
When the affair ended, he did the decent thing and gave his lover money for a flat in Toronto. It wasn't enough and Browne snapped, determined to silence him, even if it meant lying in court or trashing Chevalier's reputation - admittedly already tarnished - with false accusations of drug dependency and alcoholism.
Lord Browne is a clever man who should have known better, and if he'd had more experience of personal relationships, perhaps he would have done.
Ruthlessness in a business environment is a virtue; a desire to win, sometimes at all costs, is the driver to success which can bring rewards to an individual, an organisation and the wider community.
Ruthlessness in relationships, a desire to annihilate another whatever it takes, is, as he discovered this week, a far more challenging and unpredictable affair.
We shall not be moved - well we probably will but mai pen wry"
See also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... owne03.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/03/nbrowne03.xml)
suited and booted gay escort agency is down for 'technical reasons' Ha!
Daily Telegraph London
Why I don't feel sorry for Browne
By Liz Hunt
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/05/2007
Never did a master of the universe appear less deserving of the title. From the drooping myopic gaze to the vague half-smile, and with hands seemingly always clasped neatly before him, his demeanour is that of a particularly dapper ma├оtre d'.
In the early days, perhaps this lured rivals into underestimating the pint-sized BP executive who lived with his mother and harboured a passion for opera and obscure, ethnic art.
They lived to regret it as he showed the daring, vision, cunning and ruthlessness that had him lauded as the most brilliant businessman of his generation, the saviour of a floundering company on which 97,000 employees and numerous pension funds depended.
Until this week, I was barely aware of Lord Browne of Madingley and this awesome reputation. How sad it is, I thought, on hearing of the resignation of BP's group chief executive after revelations of a gay affair, that in this age of touchy-feely enlightenment, a man like that still feels that he cannot be open about his sexuality.
And what a pity, I mused, that after serving 42 years with the same company, he'll miss out on the ┬г15 million in cash and shares he would have received if he'd retired as planned in July.
Now, having picked my way through a story that has all the elements of a Bonfire of the Vanities for the Noughties - big business meets tabloid kiss-and-tell masquerading as a morality tale - I feel less well disposed towards the so-called Sun King of the oil industry.
Discovering that his lordship leaves with shares and pensions rights worth more than ┬г50 million is one factor. Another is that at a time when BP was facing an ever-more turbulent business environment, the man at the helm was preoccupied with fallout from a disastrous affair and, allegedly, intermingling company affairs with personal business interests.
However, it is the realisation that Lord Browne's fall from grace has little to do with a desperation to keep his sexual preferences secret, and everything to do with arrogance, hubris and an assumption that he could lie with impunity to destroy someone to whom he was once close, that has exhausted my reserves of sympathy.
If, as claimed yesterday, he selected his troubled lover, Jeff Chevalier, from the website of a gay escort agency, he was taking a risk. But what else would you expect from a high roller of the business world?
And, irrespective of how they met, they were an item for four years. Lord Browne introduced Chevalier to friends and colleagues as his partner, and lavished money on him. When his visa expired, he paid for the young Canadian to remain here as a student. He wanted them to be together.
It may have been just about sex, but isn't it more likely that for Browne, an only child whose closest adult relationship had been with his mother, the handsome Chevalier represented everything he felt he had missed out on in those decades of relentless hard work?
When the affair ended, he did the decent thing and gave his lover money for a flat in Toronto. It wasn't enough and Browne snapped, determined to silence him, even if it meant lying in court or trashing Chevalier's reputation - admittedly already tarnished - with false accusations of drug dependency and alcoholism.
Lord Browne is a clever man who should have known better, and if he'd had more experience of personal relationships, perhaps he would have done.
Ruthlessness in a business environment is a virtue; a desire to win, sometimes at all costs, is the driver to success which can bring rewards to an individual, an organisation and the wider community.
Ruthlessness in relationships, a desire to annihilate another whatever it takes, is, as he discovered this week, a far more challenging and unpredictable affair.
We shall not be moved - well we probably will but mai pen wry"
See also:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... owne03.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/03/nbrowne03.xml)
suited and booted gay escort agency is down for 'technical reasons' Ha!