Tony Hayward: Edinburgh graduate's fall sudden and spectacular

HE has been transformed from the successful head of Britain's biggest listed company to one of the most hated men in America in the space of just three months.

Tony Hayward's fall from grace has been hastened by a series of misjudged public performances and gaffes ranging from his now infamous "I want my life back" comment to the day he spent on a yacht in the Isle of Wight at the height of the BP oil leak crisis.

The decision to replace Mr Hayward will mark the end of his 28-year career at BP, which he joined in 1982 after studying geology at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1990, he became personal assistant to chief executive Lord John Browne and his transition from geologist to executive began in earnest.

Under his leadership, the company enjoyed a turnaround in fortunes as a result of a cost-cutting spree that saw around 7,500 positions axed and led to savings of around 2.7 billion.

His reputation was at an all-time high, but all that changed on 20 April, when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the region's worst ever ecological disaster. Eleven workers lost their lives.

Mr Hayward alienated most of America when he attempted to downplay the impact of the crisis by suggesting that the Gulf was "a big ocean", predicting a "very, very modest" environmental impact.

This put the married family man, who has two children, firmly in the sights of a series of politicians seeking an easy target ahead of looming mid-term elections.

President Barack Obama told one interviewer that Mr Hayward "wouldn't be working for me after any of those statements".

The New York Daily News was even more damning. One headline read: "BP's CEO Tony Hayward: The most hated - and most clueless - man in America."