Former Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell has been tapped to head communications for BP America as the company continues a long slog toward repairing its image in the wake of the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Morrell stepped down as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs in June, following Secretary Robert Gates out the door after four years spanning the Bush and Obama administrations. He was previously a TV journalist, exiting ABC News for the Pentagon in 2007 after covering the White House.
At BP, he reports to U.K.-based Peter Henshaw, group head of communications, and oversees the company’s internal and external communications in the Americas.
Henshaw,a 30-year BP veteran, took the communications reins for the company in January after former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers left the company's top media relations post in late 2010. Also in January, BP named its Florida spokesman for the crisis, Ray Dempsey, as its Washington, D.C., liaison.
BP has continued a PR and legal barrage since the Deepwater Horizon accident. It faces several lawsuits, including from the U.S. Justice Department, as well as a suit filed as recently as Sept. 1 by Deepwater Horizon partner Halliburton.
George Little took over the Pentagon press podium in July.