O'Connor

David O'Connor is head of global projects, upstream, for BP. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s in petroleum engineering from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He also holds a diploma in projects management from MIT. He began his career with Amoco Exploration in 1983, serving in engineering, technical, and leadership positions in the UK, Norway, Egypt, and the U.S. He joined BP in 2001.

David initially served as president and general manager for BP’s business in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He then was president and general manager for the In Amenas joint venture in Algeria. After stents in London and Denali, Alaska, David served as vice president of BP deepwater projects. Now managing an annual budget of $10 billion, he works around the world with accountability for the delivery of all upstream BP projects.

After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he led the transformation of BP’s project organization, not only restoring morale but seeing that the company became one of the best learning organizations in the world. Over the last two years, he has personally visited practically every BP upstream project site.