In new book, former BP chief exec describes start in gritty Alaska

On May 1, 2007, BP issued a bombshell announcement: Lord John Browne would step down as chief executive, effective immediately.

The resignation came amid allegations that Browne had favored an ex-boyfriend with the use of company resources. Browne denied any misconduct relating to BP, and the board chairman said a review found no substantive impropriety. But Browne admitted he had given “an untruthful account” in court proceedings of how he first met the boyfriend.

On the day of his resignation, Browne said he would have no further comment about his sexuality and personal life.

But now, Browne is saying a great deal in a candid new book, “The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good Business.”

He discusses lingering homophobia in business, and why corporations are beginning to embrace change.

The Cambridge-educated Browne also writes colorfully about the start of his BP career, working on Alaska’s North Slope.

“My double life began in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1969,” Browne writes. “I spent my first weeks in a dump of a hotel with walls so thin that you could not help but get to know the other guests. The city was recovering from an earthquake, which had destroyed much of the downtown area. You could still see that a large amount of the city centre had just sunk away. There was a street of bars where people would get beaten up and occasionally shot. Even so, they would go there nightly to drink. At one of the bars of choice, the management covered the floor in peanut shells so that you would make a crunching sound with every step. People danced on pianos.

“Amid all this commotion, I started my first job, assisting with the flow testing of exploration wells. The men with whom I worked were big and burly and came from Texas and Oklahoma. They could have passed for escaped convicts. In the many hours we spent in the frozen north waiting for the next thing to do, I began to develop a method of hiding my personality. It was a matter of behaving completely normally and not rocking the boat. I was polite and helpful. I was twenty-one but looked all of seventeen. I was not only the youngest person on the team but also a foreigner, so people generally wanted to support me. Whenever anyone asked if I had a girlfriend, I would say ‘yes’ and that was that.”

The publisher is HarperCollins.

These days, Browne is a partner at Riverstone Holdings, an energy investment firm.

- WESLEY LOY