Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf has chosen her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Former BP CEO Bernard Looney will join the U.S.-based data center company’s board as he seeks to bounce back from last year’s scandal that cost him the oil major’s top job.
The Irish executive told the Financial Times that he has been appointed chairman of Prometheus Hyperscale, a startup that plans to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom and build a $10 billion data center in Evanston, Wyoming.
The role, which will be formally announced by the company on Monday, will see Mr Rooney abruptly resign from BP in September 2023 for failing to fully disclose to the board his past relationships with female colleagues at the company. It is the first public appointment since the appointment.
“I had some of the best years of my life there,” said the 54-year-old executive, who left university in Dublin to join BP in 1991.
“I wish BP every success. Of course, I am thinking about the next 32 years of my career. I can’t think of anything more exciting or rewarding than staying in this field.”
Prometheus plans to build one of the world’s largest data centers on land owned by founder and CEO Trenton Thornock, a rancher with experience in the finance and energy industries. The facility will provide technology companies with up to 1 gigawatt of capacity and will cover an area of 1 square mile, roughly three-quarters the size of New York’s Central Park.
In May, Prometheus signed a partnership agreement with Oklo, a nuclear energy developer chaired and backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
“We’ll probably do other things, but this is the first thing we’re announcing publicly. We’re very energized, very excited and looking forward to getting started,” Rooney said in an interview. Ta.
Rooney said he advises Norwegian technology companies and also serves on the board of the US nonprofit Focusing Capital On The Long Term. He did not comment on a Financial Times report in July that he had met with UAE dignitaries about a private equity-style investment project backed by Gulf states.
Mr. Looney was BP’s chief executive for less than four years, but he won respect in the industry for his efforts to pivot the 115-year-old oil company toward cleaner fuels.
Last year, his career collapsed following an investigation into his past relationships with colleagues at BP, which led to his resignation. He was subsequently fired by BP for “serious misconduct” for failing to fully disclose his past relationship to the board, and was also stripped of $32.4 million in compensation and unvested stock awards. .
Asked if there were any outstanding legal issues with BP, Mr Rooney said there were not as far as he was concerned and that he wished the company well.
Prometheus’ Thornock, who previously worked in the drilling industry, said Rooney has a strong background in energy and sustainability, which makes him well-suited to chair the company.
“Of course, we have a lot of similarities in that Bernard started his career as a drilling engineer, so we both came from the energy industry into the sustainability field in the technology industry. I actually grew up on a family ranch,” he said.
He said he had “no concerns” about the manner in which Mr. Rooney left BP last year.
