Helge Lund
Helge Lund is a Norwegian businessman who has been chairman of BP since January 2019 and chairman of the Danish healthcare company Novo Nordisk since 2018. He is the former chief executive of BG Group, Statoil and Aker Kværner, and was a director of Schlumberger from June 2016 to April 2018.
Early life
Lund was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1962. He graduated with a Master of Arts in business management at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen in 1987. He has a Master of Business Administration from the INSEAD business school in France.Career
He started his career as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company and as political adviser for the Conservative Party in the Norwegian parliament Stortinget, before starting work for Hafslund Nycomed in 1993. In 1997-8 he was vice president in Nycomed Pharma before starting work in Aker RGI in 1999 as vice president before becoming CEO for Aker Kværner in 2002. After Olav Fjell withdrew as CEO of Statoil in 2004, Lund took over and was retained after Statoil merged with the oil & gas division of Norsk Hydro in 2007 to create StatoilHydro.On 15 October 2014, Lund resigned as CEO for Statoil with immediate effect, to join the management team of the UK's BG Group as CEO from 9 February 2015.
On 1 December 2014, in response to pressure from shareholders, BG Group reduced a £12 million share award golden hello for Lund to between £4.7 million to £10.6 million, depending on the company's future performance. His basic salary will be £1.5 million, but with bonuses, total compensation could reach £14 million per annum.
Following the takeover of BG Group by Royal Dutch Shell, Lund was out of a job, but did receive a total of £5.5 million for his 11 months work, and £9.7 million in shares in February 2016, as a result of the takeover.
In June 2016, Lund was appointed to the board of directors of Schlumberger. On 26 April 2018, it was announced by BP that he would join their board on the 1 September 2018 and succeed Carl-Henric Svanberg as chairman with effect from 1 January 2019.
Analysts and share holders have become critical of Helge Lund’s oversight. Many believe that the board’s mismanagement of Looney's appointment and its failure to anticipate challenges to its net-zero strategy have damaged BP's credibility.
In September 2023, Lund participated in a celebration in Azerbaijan related to the centenary of the birth of Heydar Aliyev, a former KGB officer who established an authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan after its independence from the Soviet Union. A press release from BP said that Lund was there to "pay tribute" to Aliyev's "exceptional contributions to the development of Azerbaijan and the entire region." BP is the largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan.
Career developments (2024–2025)
In April 2025, BP announced that Lund would step down as chair, with the company beginning a formal succession process for his expected departure in 2026. At BP’s annual general meeting later that month, Lund was re-elected but received approximately 75.7% shareholder support, a significant decline compared with previous years. Analysts described the vote as a signal of dissatisfaction among investors regarding BP’s strategic direction and the reversal of elements of its low-carbon transition plan.In October 2025, Novo Nordisk announced that Lund and six independent board members would not stand for re-election at an extraordinary general meeting, following a disagreement with the Novo Nordisk Foundation—its controlling shareholder—over the scale of proposed board changes. At the meeting on 14 November 2025, the Foundation used its voting majority to approve a new board slate and install Lars Rebien Sørensen as chair.
Corporate governance and shareholder issues
Lund’s reduced support at BP’s 2025 AGM was widely interpreted as a protest vote. Proxy advisers and institutional investors expressed concerns around the company’s performance, strategic clarity and governance, while activist investor Elliott Management pressed for accelerated portfolio restructuring and stronger capital discipline.
At Novo Nordisk, Lund’s departure followed diverging views between the board and the Novo Nordisk Foundation regarding the appropriate pace and scope of governance reform. The Foundation sought a broader board overhaul than the one proposed by the independent directors. Minority shareholders and several governance analysts raised concerns about the concentration of authority created by the Foundation’s decision to place its own chair at the head of the company’s board.
Impact and significance
Commentators noted that Lund’s departures from BP and Novo Nordisk in the same year marked two significant governance shifts at major European multinational companies. At BP, the 2025 shareholder vote was seen as evidence of rising investor assertiveness within the European energy sector, where shareholders have increasingly scrutinised board oversight, capital allocation and transition strategy.At Novo Nordisk, the board overhaul highlighted long-standing debates about the governance structure of foundation-controlled companies in Denmark. Analysts observed that the episode underscored tensions between board independence, minority shareholder rights and the influence of dominant shareholders within Nordic corporate models. The combined developments placed Lund at the centre of two high-profile governance transitions and prompted broader discussion about shareholder influence and corporate accountability in European markets.