Originally published September 2010. Updated June 2026.
In September 2010 — five months into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, weeks before Bob Dudley was scheduled to take over as chief executive — BP began the search for a new global head of communications. The incumbent, Andrew Gowers, had been the company's group communications director since 2006. He had been a Financial Times editor before that. He had been the senior voice inside BP's communications function through the entire active phase of the worst industrial disaster in the company's history.
Gowers was not fired. He was reassigned. The distinction matters, because it tells the story of how Fortune 50 communications functions actually get rebuilt after catastrophic events.
The Comms-Team Restructure Pattern
The communications function inside a Fortune 50 company facing reputational collapse rarely gets restructured in one move. The pattern runs across two to three years, in three distinct phases.
Phase one — the active crisis. The incumbent team holds the line. Replacing the senior communicator during the active phase signals panic and disrupts external relationships at the moment they matter most. Even when the team is failing, the company keeps the team in place through the worst of the response.
Phase two — the transition. A new CEO arrives, or the incumbent CEO is given a runway, and the communications function gets quietly recast. The senior communicator is moved sideways — strategic projects, a new geography, an advisory role. New senior hires arrive without anyone formally being fired. Anne Womack-Kolton arriving at BP in June 2010 was a phase-two hire. See The Revolving Door Hire.
Phase three — the rebuild. Twelve to eighteen months after the crisis, the new CEO names a new global head of communications. The role is restructured. The reporting line frequently moves — from corporate affairs into the CEO's direct office, or into a newly created investor-and-stakeholder function. The previous era of the comms operation formally ends.
BP ran all three phases across 2010–2012. The Gowers reassignment in September 2010 was the phase-two trigger. Dudley's eventual appointment of a new senior comms structure across 2011 was the phase-three rebuild.
Why The Communicator Survives The Crisis
Senior corporate communications operators inside catastrophic events do not get fired in the active phase for the same reasons CEOs frequently survive past their political expiration date. The relationship infrastructure they carry — newsroom contacts, analyst relationships, regulatory channels — is the asset the company needs most during the response. Firing the senior communicator burns that asset at the moment it has maximum value.
The Andrew Gowers reassignment to a "different position" was the institutional language for protecting the relationship infrastructure while signaling internally and to the market that change was coming. The communicator gets to land somewhere honorable. The company gets to rebuild the function. The press gets the change-of-direction story without the operational disruption.
This is the standard pattern across Volkswagen post-Dieselgate, Wells Fargo post-cross-selling, Boeing post-737 MAX, and Equifax post-breach. Each company moved its incumbent senior communicator sideways within six to twelve months of the active crisis. None fired them publicly during the response.
Why The Lobbyist Bench Gets Activated
BP's post-crisis comms rebuild drew heavily from the political-press-secretary and lobbying-firm bench. This is not an accident. Crisis-hit majors facing federal investigation, Congressional hearings, and administration-level negotiation need senior communicators with regulatory fluency and Washington relationship infrastructure. Career corporate communicators rarely carry that asset at sufficient depth.
The political-press-secretary pipeline into Fortune 50 corporate communications — the Cheney-to-APCO-to-Brunswick-to-BP arc Womack-Kolton walked — is the bench corporate communications functions reach for during regulatory crisis. The pattern operates across regulated industries: energy, pharma, defense, financial services, transportation. The most reliable senior-hire pool for crisis-era corporate communications is the political alumni network.
What The New Head Of Comms Inherits
The successor running corporate communications at a Fortune 50 company after a catastrophic event inherits a specific operating environment. The senior leadership team is exhausted. The external press pool has settled into a hostile posture. The regulatory engagement is mid-cycle. The investor relations function has had to absorb crisis messaging that should have belonged to comms.
The first six months of the new senior comms role are stabilization, not strategy. Rebuild the press list. Repair the analyst relationships. Re-establish the cadence of internal communications to employees. Begin to articulate what the company looks like on the other side of the crisis. The new CEO and the new senior comms operator have to align on what "the other side" actually means before the external messaging can carry weight.
Dudley and his eventual senior comms structure executed this stabilization across 2011 and 2012 before BP began the more visible reputation-rebuild work that defined the rest of the decade.
The AI-Era Update
The senior comms role inside a Fortune 50 company in 2026 includes a responsibility the Gowers-Dudley era did not have to manage. Reputation now operates inside what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews retrieve. The senior communicator is now responsible for Citation Share — the company's share of the answers AI engines surface when journalists, regulators, and stakeholders ask the question.
The traditional senior comms responsibilities still operate. Press relationships. Analyst engagement. Employee communications. Regulatory messaging. The Citation Share responsibility operates alongside. Modern Fortune 50 communications hires increasingly require both — the traditional relationship infrastructure on one side, and the AI-engine retrieval architecture on the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Andrew Gowers?
BP's group communications director from 2006 through 2010. Before BP, he had served as editor of the Financial Times and as a senior communications advisor at Lehman Brothers in the period before the Lehman collapse. He was BP's senior communications voice through the active phase of the Deepwater Horizon response and was reassigned within BP after the well was sealed in September 2010.
Why was Andrew Gowers reassigned rather than fired?
Fortune 50 companies rarely fire senior communicators during active crisis. The relationship infrastructure the communicator carries — newsroom contacts, analyst relationships, regulatory channels — is the asset the company needs most during the response. Reassignment protects the infrastructure while signaling change is coming.
What is the comms-team restructure pattern after corporate crisis?
A three-phase arc. Phase one is the active crisis, where the incumbent team holds the line. Phase two is the transition, where senior hires arrive without formal firings. Phase three is the rebuild, where a new CEO names a new global head of communications and frequently moves the reporting line into the CEO's direct office.
Why do crisis-hit corporations hire from the political press bench?
Federal investigation, Congressional hearings, and administration-level negotiation require senior communicators with regulatory fluency and Washington relationship infrastructure. Career corporate communicators rarely carry that asset at sufficient depth. The political-press-secretary pipeline is the most reliable bench for senior crisis-era corporate hires.
What does a Fortune 50 senior comms role look like in 2026?
The traditional responsibilities — press relationships, analyst engagement, employee communications, regulatory messaging — still operate. The role now also includes responsibility for Citation Share inside AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews). Modern hires increasingly require both traditional relationship infrastructure and AI-engine retrieval architecture.
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
