Murray Auchincloss

Murray Michael Auchincloss (born 1970) is a Canadian business executive who served as Chief Executive Officer of BP from January 2024, stepping down effective December 18, 2025. Before becoming interim CEO in September 2023, Auchincloss had been BP's chief financial officer since July 2020. He will serve in an advisory role until December 2026 to ensure a smooth transition to successor Meg O'Neill, who will become CEO on April 1, 2026.

Auchincloss earned a BCom degree in finance from the University of Calgary and qualified as a chartered financial analyst at West Virginia University in the United States. He began his career as a tax analyst at Amoco in 1992, prior to its merger with BP in 1998. He is the fourth generation of his family to work in energy.

Career history

• CEO and Board Member of BP plc (January 2024 – December 2025)
• Interim CEO of BP (September 2023 – January 2024)
• Chief Financial Officer of BP (July 2020 – September 2023)
• Chief of Staff to BP CEO (2010 – 2013)
• BP Upstream CFO (2015 – 2020)
• Tax analyst at Amoco (1992)

During his tenure as BP CEO, Auchincloss orchestrated a significant strategic transformation of the company. On February 26, 2025, he announced a fundamental strategic reset, reducing annual capital expenditure to $13–15 billion through 2027 and reallocating capital to the company's highest-returning businesses. This reset included raising oil and gas investment to approximately $10 billion annually and cutting transition spending by more than $5 billion annually, reversing the net-zero pivot made in 2020. The reset was triggered by profit collapse and pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, with targets for structural cost reductions of $4–5 billion by end 2027 and $20 billion in divestments by 2027.

Auchincloss brought three decades of experience navigating BP's complex operations. His tenure encompasses leadership in tax, business development, mergers and acquisitions, and performance management. As CFO he led a major modernisation drive in BP finance, including building the financial framework on which BP's strategy rests. His career trajectory from tax analyst through CFO to CEO provided deep institutional knowledge that positioned him to lead BP's strategic pivot toward core upstream assets and improved financial discipline.