Tauno Uolevi Raade (5 July 1912 – 13 May 1998) was a Finnish industrialist and a long-time

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Neste Neste Oyj (international name: Neste Corporation; former names Neste Oil Corporation and Fortum Oil and Gas Oy; ) is an oil refining and marketing company located in Espoo, Finland. It produces, refines and markets oil products, provides eng ...

(now ''Neste Oil''), the Finnish national

oil refining An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

company. Raade was born in

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

, and received university degrees from

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

(TKK) and Åbo Akademi. At TKK, he was one of the founders of the student flying club. During the Second World War he initially served as a fighter pilot, but was soon transferred into the industry. In 1945, he was appointed the director of Ministry of Trade and Industry, where he planned the payment of war reparations stipulated by the Soviet Union. Already in this role he was involved in the founding of the Finnish oil industry. In 1955, he was appointed managing director of Neste. The first oil refinery at

Naantali Naantali (; ) is a municipalities of Finland, town in Southwest Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important centre of tourism in the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located west of Turku. The town h ...

was brought on stream a couple of years after this. Raade and his friend, Prime Minister and from 1956 President of the Republic

Urho Kekkonen Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (; 3 September 1900 – 31 August 1986), often referred to by his initials UKK, was a Finnish politician who served as the eighth and longest-serving president of Finland from 1956 to 1982. He also served as Prime Minister ...

were responsible for promoting the project; Kekkonen rallied the politicians and Raade took care of relations to industry at home and abroad. In 1959, Raade also became the chairman of the company's board. He acted in both positions until his retirement in 1979. In addition to this post, he was also active in industrial federations and committees and was a member or chairman of the board of 37 corporations. He received the honorary title of

vuorineuvos (, 'mining councilor', literally Finnish for 'mountain councilor'; Swedish: ) is both a Finnish honorary title and a historical Swedish role on the Swedish Board of Mines. The Finnish title is granted by the President of Finland to leading f ...

(the highest one awarded to industrialists) in 1962. The former headquarters building of

, now occupied by Accountor, is colloquially called ''Raaden hammas'' "Raade's tooth". It was constructed 1973–78 and was the tallest office building in Finland until 2025.

References

Obituary for Uolevi Raade
at

MTV3 MTV3 (, ) is a Finnish commercial television channel owned and operated by the media company MTV Oy, originally launched on 13 August 1957 as a programming block, becoming its own channel on 1 January 1993. It had the biggest audience share ...

1912 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Finnish businesspeople Businesspeople from Turku Neste people Aalto University alumni Åbo Akademi University alumni {{Finland-bio-stub