Lund, CEO of British firm BG Group, has been credited for his strong attention to corporate responsibility. The Norwegian executive believes that collaboration is vital to the success of an organisation

“I would like to thank Helge Lund for his great efforts during his 10-year tenure at Statoil”, wrote Chairman Svein Rennemo in an October 2014 farewell note that left the company’s senior management reeling. Since taking the reins on August 16 2004, Lund has overseen a yearly shareholder return of 11.2 percent – 2.3 percentage points above the industry average – and grown the company’s market capitalisation from a respectable €22bn to a colossal €59bn. International production at Statoil has increased fivefold, and its total number of production wells in 2004, at 12, has since been dwarfed, with the company having completed another 50 in 2014 alone.

It was at Statoil that the Norwegian executive made known to the world his credentials as an industry pioneer, after playing a decisive part in cementing the firm’s status as one of the largest offshore oil and gas companies worldwide, and the biggest in the region, measured by revenue. “Under his leadership, Statoil has become a stronger company”, says Rennemo.

Arguably most impressive of all, however, is that Lund took a company known to few outside of the local community or industry circles, and, in the space of only 10 years, turned it into a world leader in the energy sector and one of the region’s biggest economic contributors. Bringing with him a responsible business culture and an ability to crack notoriously hard-to-break markets, Lund has quickly become one of the most sought after names in the business. Finally, after leading Statoil for a quarter of its lifespan, the executive was poached by British firm BG Group in October 2014, with the promise of a £12m golden hello and £13.5m in annual earnings.

“Helge’s track record speaks for itself. He has built a world-class exploration and production portfolio at Statoil, and the company is now widely admired for its technical expertise, financial performance and strong, values-based culture”, wrote BG Group Chairman Andrew Gould in a statement. “Helge is ideally suited to lead BG Group in the next phase of its growth, and to accelerate the creation and delivery of value for our shareholders, while delivering the group’s business plans. The board and I are delighted to have secured his appointment.” Indeed, as the executive readies to embark upon a new chapter of his career, this may well be the beginning of a shining new era for Lund and BG.

Humble beginnings to heady heights
Born just outside Oslo in 1962, to a psychiatrist father and headmistress mother who, he says, instilled a willingness to work in both him and his four siblings, Lund’s upbringing was unspectacular prior to his achievements in the workplace. Before embarking upon what would become a quite spectacular career, Lund graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen and went on to acquire an MBA from the prestigious INSEAD Business School in France.

Following his studies, Lund worked in politics and in business consulting, first operating as a political advisor to the Norwegian Conservative Party’s parliamentary group and later as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. After successful stints at each, he joined pharmaceutical manufacturer Hafslund Nycomed in 1993 and later Aker RGI Holding, where he was made chief executive of engineering and construction services provider Aker Kvaerner in 2002. It was here, says Lund, that he familiarised himself with the oil and gas industry, and in 2004 he became head of Statoil, where he would turn a little-known local player into a world-renowned industry giant.

Lund’s 10 years spent with Statoil are best characterised by transformation and value creation, for which the executive is today renowned. By focusing on global expansion, the beginning of Lund’s tenure marked the start of a new strategic direction for Statoil, as the company positioned itself to compete with similar firms on the global stage. Not intimidated by the reigning powerhouses of the industry, Lund quickly set about boosting Statoil’s international credentials.

It took until the end of 2006, however, for the company to file a merger proposal that, if approved, would see Statoil partner with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro for close to $30bn. Under the deal, oil and gas production for the combined entity would reach an impressive 1.9 million barrels of crude per day in the year that followed, and a report put together by Norsk Hydro to answer any questions on the merger read: “Statoil’s and Norsk Hydro’s boards of directors each believe that the combination of Statoil with Hydro Petroleum will create a Norwegian-based international oil and gas company that will be a more forceful international competitor than either Statoil or Hydro Petroleum would be on its own, with greater capabilities to accelerate growth, respond to the challenging competitive landscape of the energy industry and deliver long-term value to shareholders.”

When EU officials approved the proposal in May 2007, the merger marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Norwegian oil and gas industry. Equipped with greater expertise and a much more formidable balance sheet, the combined entity, under Lund’s focused leadership, readied to make a string of landmark acquisitions and boost its prospects on the international stage further than ever before.

Strength to strength
In the years following the merger, Statoil invested substantially in oil fields located in both Brazil and Canada, before reaching an agreement with Anadarko for a number of assets off the Gulf of Mexico. Worth close to $1bn, the deal was for two deepwater discoveries and one prospect, which would together bolster Statoil’s influence in the region and add to a growing portfolio of foreign assets.

The biggest development was yet to come, however, and occurred when Statoil uncovered three ‘high impact discoveries’ in 2011 and made good on its promise to prioritise emerging opportunities in their home region and beyond. The three findings represented a production opportunity of anywhere between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of recoverable oil and still rank among the most impressive reserves found in the region to date.

Also central to Statoil’s success, and among Lund’s most impressive achievements to date, was in 2012 when the company partnered with Russian giant Rosneft as part of a deal to tap what was suspected to be billions of tonnes of oil locked up in the Arctic. Despite a string of disappointing finds, the partnership continues in good health as the two look to the Barents Sea as their next destination.

Here it became clear that Lund’s vision to improve on the company’s international influence was beginning to pay dividends. And not only had the executive led Statoil on to bigger things, he had done so in a measured and responsible way. “The way we work is as important as the goals we achieve” according to company site. “We believe that competitive returns for our shareholders are best achieved through a values-based performance culture, stringent ethical requirements and a code of conduct which promotes personal integrity.”

In a world where many in his position are quick to forsake wellbeing in favour of profits, Lund has maintained throughout that responsibility is a key part of any successful business. Illustrative of this philosophy is the fact that, during Lund’s 10 years at the helm, serious incident frequency decreased from 3.3 to 0.7 per million working hours. In an industry that has so often fallen victim to managerial oversight and the ramifications that come with it, the importance of having a responsible, solid leader at the top cannot be overstated.

Not only focused on protecting workers against safety missteps, Lund has also taken pains to make clear his commitment to transparency in protecting stakeholders’ best interests. “We believe that transparency is a cornerstone of good governance. To create trust and foster a predictable business environment we need to promote transparency and accountability”, as stated on the company site.

A team player
Another of Lund’s principles of management is teamwork, which, he says, is imperative if a company is to reach its full potential. “No individual will succeed without being good at collaboration”, says Lund, according to World Of CEOs. “This must be one of the clearest messages from corporate management on account of the urgent need to have different professional groups working together to solve the immensely complicated issues that face us. We put great emphasis on collaboration, and this fits comfortably with the general Scandinavian attitude of openness for cooperation.” Acknowledging that the growth of any company is not the work of any single individual, but the collective, Lund’s philosophy is that each and every one of his employees must play a decisive part in improving the reputation and profitability of the business.

In committing to sustainable growth and abiding by a well-chosen strategy throughout, Lund has turned Statoil into a company with a proven capacity to post impressive returns far into the future. In 2011, to celebrate its 10-year anniversary since becoming a publically listed company, Statoil presented its long-term growth outlook, in which it stated that production would climb from 1.9 million barrels per day in 2010 to over 2.5 million in 2020. “We have made significant strategic progress and have proven ability to deliver competitive returns since our IPO in 2001. With a premium project portfolio and strong commitment to leverage the company’s competitive strengths, we will continue our journey”, wrote Lund at the time of the report.

Fast-forward to today, and the executive’s new employers are hoping he can lead them to similar heights. With £500,000 thrown in for relocation and £3m paid to compensate him for shares he was owed by Statoil, Lund’s pay package is worth an estimated seven times more than what it was at Statoil, which BG claims is a competitive rate in the industry. Following on from his time with Statoil, in particular his success in taking the company’s competencies to countries other than his own, Lund appears the perfect choice to do the same again with BG. “BG Group is a company with a strong set of assets and opportunities. I look forward to joining this organisation and working with BG’s people to develop the company’s full potential”, Lund stated. And with the same philosophy in place and an appropriate strategy to match, there’s no reason why he cannot repeat, or even improve on the job done in his previous role.