How this Kerry farmer's son is a rising star at oil giant BP

Bernard Looney is helping to shape the future of BP

John Reynolds

Bernard Looney grew up on a farm in Ashgrove, near Kenmare in Co Kerry. Today, the 48-year-old UCD engineering graduate is based in London and spends about half his time travelling the globe for the world's sixth-largest energy company, BP.

It's quite a way from his Kerry roots, on a small dairy farm - "only about eight acres out of the 90 we had were actually arable. We had 14 cows and it was pretty much subsistence farming".