BHP Billiton has come under pressure from activist shareholders, including fund manager Elliot, which has demanded strategic changes to set the company on a more rewarding course. Other critical shareholders have denigrated the three letters of the acronym for Broken Hill Proprietary, the company’s original name in 1851, to Broken Hearted People, a name twist coined during the downturn of the nineties. In this picture, new chairperson Ken MacKenzie is seen at the annual general meeting in Melbourne, where he committed the Australia-based company to exiting US onshore oil and gas interests within two years.