Reuters Business  Report  It only took a handful a words for Tony Hayward to become a global symbol of corporate carelessness.

TONY HAYWARD, FORMER BP CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAYING IN MAY 2010:

"There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I'd like my life back."

Two months after those infamous comments in 2010, he was out, but it seems, not down forever.

Hayward has returned to a top-line job, being appointed interim chairman of commodities giant Glencore Xstrata.

His appointment comes after a shareholder coup at the newly merged group, which pushed out chairman Sir John Bond and all the former Xstrata directors.

Hayward isn't chasing the job permanently, as he continues to run Genel Energy, the Kurdistan-focused exploration company he set up after leaving BP.

But his appointment is a public show of faith in a man once thought to be fatally damaged goods.