Reports also reveal that while the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are conducting “informal inquiries into securities matters” pertaining to the oil spill, politicians in the US will also be holding a hearing into whether BP lobbied the UK to secure the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

A committee wants BP to answer claims about an oil deal based on the release, saying that BP officials lobbied the government to release Megrahi, convicted following the explosion of a jumbo jet over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, so that it could secure an offshore oil project with Libya. But the accusations, vehemently denied by BP, are just the latest in a long line of troubles to have plagued the oil giant in recent months.

Now, outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward has become the latest casualty that the firm has had to endure.

It was on Tuesday that BP announced chief executive Tony Hayward was stepping down after just three years in the job. Hayward, long reviled by the public and, largely, as CEO, the scapegoat for BP’s most recent atrocities, hung his head and said, “Sorry.” And that was that.

Wasn’t it? Well, not quite. To coincide with his resignation, Hayward will be receiving a year’s salary of GBP£1 million (US$1.6 million) and a pension reportedly worth GBP£11 million, accrued over 28 years of service: a pretty hefty sum, given the massive losses the company has also reported during the very same week.

However, Hayward’s “golden parachute” is actually quite minimal compared payouts received by previous CEOs; which begs the question: is this amount enough?

Financial services executives, such as Charles Prince, Fred Goodwin and Stan O’Neal each received payouts of between $24million and a massive $161.5million respectively; and not to equate huge write-downs and subprime mortgage losses with the devastating environmental impacts caused by BP, but the huge gaps in the size of these “parachutes” just don’t seem to add up.

It’s probably best, then, to not mentioned Lord Browne –Hayward’s predecessor – who resigned in 2007 with a leaving package of GBP£3.5million and potential GBP£12milion in shares, just for lying about the fact he was gay.

A little sumpin-sumpin

According to a list compiled by The Economist this week, Hayward’s payout actually sits at the bottom of some of the biggest CEO payouts in recent years, speculating that Hayward’s rebuffing by the public could well be one of the reasons why the payout is so modest.

Potentially this is assuming that, by taking a smaller payout, Hayward might stand in better favour with an otherwise uncomplimentary media persona. But of course, projecting a successful, well-liked public image of a company’s CEO has long been a struggle for businesses.

There are those businesses, however, that are capable of managing this challenge successfully: where the public image of the CEO or business leader is so synonymous with the brand that they become one and the same. Think James Dyson, Bill Gates, Richard Branson.

In a recent interview with MeetTheBoss.tv, Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Atlantic and long-time lynchpin of Branson’s Virgin brand, explained the importance of handling such an issue when he talked about the infamous Pendolino train crash of 2007.

“When we went in front of the media, Sir Richard said ‘If I was responsible for this, I will take full responsibility, but really our thoughts today are with those who’ve been hurt.’ And that was really all he said.

“There should always be somebody who thinks about the relationship with the public on the board of every company. Those are the people that think about, ‘Well it matters if we skimp on the packaging for that product. It matters if we do this wrong here or get that wrong there, or cut back corner there on safety. It matters because of our relationship with these people who are buying our products’.”

Public enemies or successful public speaking? To find out more about leading in the public eye head to MeetTheBoss.TV