DICK OLVER’S move from No 2 at BP to chairman of BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest manufacturer, is the latest in a long line of executive catapults from the oil giant.

In the past few years a stream of senior directors have used their BP credentials to win top jobs in a range of other industries. Mr Olver’s predecessor as BP deputy chief executive, Rodney Chase, left last year to be deputy chairman of the retailer Tesco.

Last year John Buchanan, then BP’s chief financial officer, left oil for mining to become a senior director of BHP Billiton.

Bryan Sanderson left as BP’s managing director of chemicals two years ago to be chairman of Standard Chartered, the international bank.

He followed Chris Gibson-Smith, who left to head National Air Traffic Services before going on to be London Stock Exchange chairman. Mr Gibson-Smith had been managing director of a range of non-business functions in BP, including human resources and the environment.

Analysts have questioned whether BP represents either a remarkable training ground for business talent or a group from which top executives want to escape.

A spokeswoman for BP said that many of the directors who had left the company in recent years had been near to its official retirement age of 60 and had therefore been looking to extend their careers in another organisation.

The previous big executive career switch from BP came seven years ago when Sir David Simon quit as chairman to become a peer; as Lord Simon of Highbury he was minister for competitiveness at the Department of Trade and Industry. However Lord Simon, who had been one of Tony Blair’s favourite business leaders, eventually found the process of government frustrating and he left two years later to concentrate on campaigning to get Britain to join the euro.

Lord Simon’s unhappy experience in swapping the world of business for that of politics did not stop one of the Prime Minister’s key advisers from making the reverse move.

Anji Hunter, who had been acting as Tony Blair’s “gatekeeper” at No 10, joined BP three years ago as head of communications.

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