Centrica

O’Shea joined Centrica in 2018 as chief financial officer before becoming chief executive officer in early 2020. ^[2]

O’Shea has led a turnaround of Centrica which focussed the business by disposing of non-core assets, eliminating 4,000 management roles and delayering the organisation to improve the speed of decision making. The balance sheet was restructured with the elimination of over £7 billion in liabilities, resulting in the company having net cash of £3.1 billion at the end of the first half of 2023. During O’Shea’s time colleague engagement has been transformed through a programme to re-engage with the workforce and a strong belief in the inverted pyramid model of leadership. Centrica has been one of the highest performing stocks in the FTSE100 under O’Shea with the share price growing more than 400%. In 2022 Centrica posted the highest annual earnings in it’s history, repeating the feat in 2023 with record first half earnings.

From 2019 to 2022, O'Shea forewent annual bonuses of several million pounds citing the hardships faced by consumers during COVID-19 pandemic and then the international energy price crisis. In 2023, Centrica posted year-end profits of over £3 billion and O'Shea faced calls to forego his bonus again eventually settling for a package of over 4 million GBP. ^[3][4]

O'Shea attracted considerable controversy during his tenure at Centrica, primarily for his role as the main architect of the largest "fire, rehire" in British business history.

Smiths Group

O’Shea was the chief financial officer of UK listed FTSE100 company Smiths Group from 2015 to 2017. During O’Shea’s time the company’s pension liabilities, a historical barrier to portfolio reshaping, were restructured, the debt was refinanced, and underlying business performance was improved. O’Shea led the $725 million acquisition of Morpho Detection to create the world’s largest security detection business and the disposal of a number of non-core businesses to result in a more focussed, higher performing company. During O’Shea’s time the share price increased by 60%.

Vesuvius

O’Shea was the chief financial officer of UK listed FTSE250 company Vesuvius from 2012 to 2015. O’Shea joined Cookson Group to lead the demerger of the group into 2 separate FTSE250 companies, Alent and Vesuvius. O’Shea promptly disposed of the legacy precious metals division to focus Vesuvius on its core business of industrial ceramics and helped to establish the company as a successful standalone listed business.

BG Group

From 2006 to 2012 O’Shea held a number of senior positions in BG Group a UK listed integrated energy company, latterly as the chief financial officer for the group’s operations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Shell

From 1998 to 2005 O’Shea held a number of senior positions in Shell a UK listed integrated energy company, living and working in Aberdeen, London, Houston, Port Harcourt and Lagos. O’Shea’s last role was chief financial officer for the group’s offshore exploration and production business in Nigeria.

EY

O’Shea spent time with EY in Aberdeen as a consultant having qualified as a chartered accountant in 1996 in Glasgow.