The Men Who Run BG Group

LONDON -- Management can make all the difference to a company's success and thus its share price.

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. On the other hand, some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I'm assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100 (UKX). I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today I am looking at BG Group (LSE: BG.L), the integrated natural gas company.

Here are the key directors:

Andrew Gould has been a non-exec for 12 months, and became chairman in May. A chartered accountant, he was previously chairman and CEO of Schlumberger, the oil services group, where he spent most of his career. He was also a non-exec director of Rio Tinto.

Rare specimen
Sir Frank Chapman is that rare specimen, an engineer running a FTSE 100 company. After a career with Shell and BP, he joined BG in 1996 and became CEO in 2000. That's a long stint at the top, during which the share price has increased five-fold. He plans to step down next year, which might explain his selling a large chunk of shares in May -- though he still has 18 million pounds worth.

Appointed as CFO in 2011, Fabio Barbosa was previously CFO of Vale, the Brazilian mining company, and earlier served in the Brazilian finance ministry. That's a useful background given the importance of BG's Brazilian operations.

Martin Houston has been with BG for 29 years and has 10 million pounds worth of shares to his name. Chris Finlayson is a more recent arrival, having spent 33 years with Shell.

BG has nine non-execs with backgrounds in industry, government, and banking. The senior non-exec is Baroness Hogg, formerly head of the prime minister's policy unit.

I analyze management teams from five different angles to work out a verdict. Here's my assessment:

Overall, BG scores 18 out of 25, one of the better management teams in the FTSE 100.

Frank Chapman's departure next year will be a loss, but the company has shown itself adept at succession planning. BG faces some challenges ahead, but the company is in safe hands.

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