CEO Botten in top 100

By GEDION TIMOTHY
OIL Search managing director Peter Botten has again been recognised by the Harvard Business Review as one of world’s 100 top performing chief executive officers – for the second consecutive year.
The Havard Business Review is a general management magazine published by the Harvard Business Publishing owned by the Harvard University.
Botten told The National yesterday that he had benefitted a lot from working with the company.
“We have some world class assets, including our people at Oil Search, which combined with a stable fiscal environment, allows good companies to perform. I have certainly benefited from this,” he said.
“Recognition from a very well-regarded source like this helps to put PNG on the investment map as being a good place to invest.”
According to Oil Search, the judging was based on the philosophy that business leaders should be judged by, results they produce over their entire tenure, and evaluation based on objective data – not public opinion.
Botten was first recognised last year when the magazine began using ratings of companies’ environmental, social and governance performance to evaluate CEOs for the first time.
Botten celebrates his 22nd anniversary as CEO for Oil Search this year – a company which Botten had led to phenomenal growth. It makes him Australian Securities Exchange’s longest-serving CEO.
Under his guidance, Oil Search has grown from a market capitalisation of around A$300 million (K7,102,198) to more than A$14 billion (K33,143,592,960).
Oil Search in a statement said Botten’s standing went beyond market performance and reflected his deep engagement with social issues – especially in PNG – an important factor for inclusion on HBR’s prestigious list.
Over the years, his passionate commitment to improving living standards in PNG had been unwavering. As chairman of the Oil Search Foundation, he guided the company’s work to deliver major health and education programmes in PNG in partnership with the Health department, Global Fund and the Australian Government.
He is also the Hela Provincial Health Authority chairman, a member of the National Football Stadium board and the Business for Development board in Australia.
Botten was recently appointed to AGL Energy’s board of directors.
In 2008, he was made a Commander of British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Honours List for services to the community, mining and petroleum industries in PNG.