Former French Legionnaire Simon Murray became the latest casualty of oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum’s boardroom bloodletting, standing down as chairman.
His departure is the price of shareholder backing for a $40.7 million (£27.6 million) fundraising to cover delays to payments from its assets in Kurdistan as the region’s government battles against Islamic State militants.
Murray joined the board in July 2013 at the same time as rebel investor M&G Investments and Capital Group won a battle to put four new non-executives on the board, amid concerns over corporate governance and chief executive Todd Kozel’s huge pay awards.
Kozel went last summer and an uneasy peace has held since then, although the company has been rocked by the plunging oil price and Middle East turmoil.
Sources said there was “no love lost” between Murray and the investors.
Murray — who became the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported in 2004 aged 63 — was engulfed in controversy as Glencore chairman in 2011 when he said hiring women was risky because they fall pregnant.
