BP’s C-suite milestone: Women in both the CEO and CFO seats

Coins2Day’s energy editor, Jordan Blum, reported that BP hired Woodside Energy leader Meg O’Neill as CEO, effective April 1. Current BP CEO Murray Auchincloss stepped down on Thursday but will serve in an advisory role through 2026, while Carol Howle, BP’s EVP of supply, trading, and shipping, will serve as interim CEO.

O’Neill will become the first-ever woman chief executive of a Big Oil giant—typically defined as BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and TotalEnergies. In addition, BP is the only one among its peers that will have a woman in both the CEO and CFO positions. Kate Thomson became finance chief of BP in February 2024 after serving as interim CFO. Thomson is the first woman to serve as CFO at the company.

Blum writes that O’Neill is “taking over the British energy behemoth at a time when it has fallen behind the other global oil and gas supermajors and was even a potential takeover target earlier this year by rival Shell.” She is succeeding Auchincloss, “who was hardly considered the top candidate to lead BP, but the former chief financial officer was thrust into the role in late 2023 when then-CEO Bernard Looney was abruptly forced to resign over relationships with colleagues,” he writes.

O’Neill is an Exxon Mobil veteran who grew Australia’s Woodside into a much bigger global natural gas player with expansions into the U.S. She and Thomson are set to become strategic partners. Thomson has worked at BP for more than 20 years, serving as VP of finance for production and operations before becoming CFO.

Additional Big Oil companies where women are finance chiefs include Exxon Mobil SVP and CFO Kathryn A. Mikells, who has held the role since 2021, but is retiring in February due to health issues, and Shell CFO Sinead Gorman, who has been finance chief since 2022; both earned a spot on the Coins2Day 2025 Most Powerful Women list.

Outside of Big Oil, Coins2Day’s Emma Hinchliffe notes another woman at the top: Vicki Hollub (No. 90 on the Coins2Day 2025 Most Powerful Women list) has been CEO of Occidental Petroleum since 2016, making her the first woman to lead a major American oil company.

Have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
[email protected]

Leaderboard

 Coins2Day 500 Power Moves

—Maria A. Khoury was appointed EVP and CFO of Marathon Petroleum Corp. (No. 29), effective Jan. 19, 2026. Khoury will succeed John J. Quaid, who will remain with the company for a period of transition. Since 2021, Khoury has served as VP and group CFO of Biotechnology for Danaher, where she has finance responsibility for Cytiva (formerly GE Healthcare Biopharma) and Pall Life Sciences, including oversight of the controllership, treasury, and tax functions. From 2017-2020, Khoury served as VP of finance and IT for GE Healthcare Life Sciences, based in the United Kingdom.

—Matthew Calderone, EVP and CFO of Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (No. 398), will resign from the company effective Feb. 1, 2026, according to an SEC filing. Calderone, a longtime executive at Booz Allen, became CFO in October 2022. He previously served in several leadership roles, including chief strategy officer. The company has initiated a search for a new CFO. Upon Calderone’s departure, Kristine Martin Anderson, EVP and chief operating officer, will assume his duties and responsibilities on an interim basis.

Calderone is the newly appointed CFO of the Mobility business of S&P Global (No. 305), effective March 1, 2026. He will serve as the CFO of the standalone public company through its planned separation from S&P Global. Calderone will report to Bill Eager, president of S&P Global Mobility and CEO-designate of the future standalone company.

Every Friday morning, the weekly Coins2Day 500 Power Moves column tracks Coins2Day 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.

More notable moves this week:

Christy Schwartz was promoted to CFO of Opendoor Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: OPEN), a real estate technology company, effective Jan. 1, 2026. Schwartz was selected after an extensive CFO search. On Sept. 30, she became interim CFO, replacing Selim Freiha. Schwartz also previously served as Opendoor’s interim CFO from December 2022 to November 2024, and has also served as chief accounting officer, and VP and corporate controller. 

Amy Butte, CFO of Navan, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVN), a corporate travel management platform, will step down from the role on Jan. 9, 2026. Navan made the announcement on Dec. 15 in its third-quarter earnings release—its first since its initial public offering. Butte will continue to serve as a strategic advisor to Navan while the board conducts its search for the company’s next CFO. Anne Giviskos, the current SVP of strategic finance and chief accounting officer, has been appointed interim CFO. 

Matthew Dunnigan was appointed CFO of 7 Brew, a drive-thru coffee chain. Dunnigan joins 7 Brew from Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR), where he served as CFO for more than six years and with the company for about 10 years.

Lance Ludman is the new CFO of SurveyMonkey, a platform for surveys and forms. Ludman is a seasoned finance executive. He most recently served as CFO at Benevity, a provider of corporate purpose software. Before that, he was CFO for DreamBox Learning. Ludman also held leadership roles at Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT).

Mark E. Patten was appointed CFO of Sun Communities, Inc. (NYSE: SUI), a real estate investment trust, effective Jan. 5, 2026. Patten will succeed Fernando Castro-Caratini. Patten joins the company from Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc., where he serves as EVP, CFO, and treasurer. He has held senior finance leadership roles across the real estate investment trust and professional services sectors, including CFO of CTO Realty Growth, Inc.

Todd Saypoff was appointed CFO of Moore, a data-driven constituent experience management (CXM) company. Saypoff brings experience scaling financial operations across organizations ranging from startups to global enterprises. His background includes CFO roles at Lucid Holdings, Shazam, which was acquired by Apple, and NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

Big Deal

KPMG’s Year-End Deals Snapshot of M&A, private equity, and IPOs in the U.S. Finds that dealmakers are optimistic going into 2026. Two-thirds (66%) of respondents expect their M&A deal pipeline to be higher in 2026 than in 2025. 

The top three reasons cited by those planning more M&A activity are expanding into new markets (66%), growing the core business (58%), and acquiring new technological capabilities (53%).

Another key finding is that acquiring new technology is a major deal driver. Acquiring "AI-native companies or AI-enabling technologies" is a focus for 10% of dealmakers overall, and this increases to 48% for those in the technology sector.

Going deeper

Here are four Coins2Day weekend reads:

Overheard

"Generative AI can simulate reasoning, but it can’t exercise discernment."

— Sophia Romee writes in a Coins2Day opinion piece. Romee is the general manager of the GenAI Studio at the College Board, an incubator focused on responsible AI experimentation and literacy for educators, students, and employees.