Svein Aaser (born 7 October 1946) is a former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of DnB NOR, the largest financial group in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He resigned on 31 December 2006. He is chair of FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 and the National Gallery of Norway

Early career

Aaser was born in

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1 ...

and was educated at the

Norwegian School of Economics The Norwegian School of Economics ( no, Norges Handelshøyskole) or NHH is a business school situated in Bergen, Norway. It was founded in 1936 as Norway's first business school and is a leading teaching and research institution in the fields of ...

(NHH) where he received his MBA in 1970. By 1976, he had graduated from the Swiss

IMD Business School International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a private business school in Lausanne, Switzerland specializes in executive education offering open enrollment programs for senior executives, as well as longer-term educational engagem ...

's Program for Executive Development. After obtaining his MBA (1970) he worked his way up in businesses starting as assistant to deputy managing director for

Tank Nielsen A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful en ...

, M. Peterson & Søn, Moss. From there he became marketing manager of Sarpsborg Papp, Div. Kartong, managing director for NORA matprodukter and of Storebrand Skade.

Later career

During a period of ten years starting in 1987 he was president and CEO of

Hafslund Nycomed Hafslund Nycomed is a defunct company that existed between 1986 and 1996 after the power and industry company Hafslund had bought the pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical company Nycomed. The company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. In 1996 it was ...

who changed its name after the acquisition of Nycomed. The year after saw him deputy CEO and chief executive officer of a subsidiary company called Imaging Nycomed Amersham. In 1998 he was appointed CEO of Den norske Bank, later the merged DnB NOR. In 2008 he was appointed chairman of the board of the National Gallery of Norway. He has also been the chairman of Marine Harvest, but stepped down in January 2010. He also chairs

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower company, fully owned by the Norwegian state. The Statkraft Group is a generator of renewable energy, as well as Norway’s largest and the Nordic region's third largest energy producer. Statkraft develops and generate ...

. From 2012 to 2015 he was chairman of the board of

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norway, Norwegian majority State-owned enterprise, state-owned multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the List of mobile network ...

References

1946 births Living people Norwegian bankers DNB ASA people People from Fredrikstad Norwegian School of Economics alumni International Institute for Management Development alumni {{Norway-business-bio-stub