Hakon Christiansen

Hakon Christiansen (businessman)
Born	23 January 1893
Died	20 September 1960 (Age 67)
Nationality	Danish
Member of	Bilderberg/Steering committee
Danish businessman. Bilderberg Steering committee.

Hakon Marius Christiansen was director of the Danish East Asiatic Company (EAC) and a member of the Bilderberg Steering committee.

Early career

After graduation, Christiansen in 1908 was employed in the East Asiatic Company (Danish: Det Østasiatiske Kompagni) and trained in the company's control department. In his spare time, he first took the baccalaureate (1914) and later, after the outbreak of World War I prevented him from being sent to serve at one of the branches of EAC, he went to business school, as well as read law and political science, without, however, finishing his studies with an exam. After the end of the World War, Christiansen in the construction of EAC in Eastern Europe and the resumption of the emigrant trade between the Baltics and America. He spent much time travelling in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Baltic states, and spent six months in Moscow to gain knowledge of the conditions and trade opportunities with the new Soviet Russia.

In 1924, the C. deployed for service in the company's large Bangkok branch, and became head of the branch in 1927. This post Christiansen covered for ten years; however, in 1931-33 he was loaned by the company to the Thai government as its chief trade adviser and head of department in the Ministry of trade and traffic. During his years in Bangkok, Christiansen participated in the general expansion of the company's activities throughout the Far East. In 1937 Christiansen went back to Copenhagen and became director of the company's shipping department. In 1939, after the outbreak of war, he became a member of the freight board and the war insurance scheme for Danish ships.

World War 2

When Denmark was occupied in 1940, the Executive Board of EAC agreed to try to get a member of the executive board out of the country to build a provisional administration for the company, after Denmark had been isolated from most of the countries where EAC had interests. In May, Christiansen succeeded. via Italy to get to the USA and later to London. From New York and London, in the following years he headed the EAC's branch offices, and new branches were opened, among others in a number of South American countries, and he and his employees laid the foundation for a further development of the company's activities in North America and Africa. Thus, in Canada, through the acquisition of large tracts of forest and the acquisition of forest concessions, an enterprise was created that, after the war, developed into a significant business for the EAC.

After the war

In 1945 Christiansen went back to the head office in Copenhagen. While in the following years he took part in the great work that confronted the EAC in the difficult times, he undertook to conduct a number of important negotiations on behalf of Danish shipping, such as the Danish-English negotiations on compensation and compensation for Danish ships sailing for England during the war, similar discussions with France and, as chairman of a committee set up by the shipowners regarding war insurance for Danish ships.

Especially thanks to Christiansen, favorable results were obtained from these negotiations. It was therefore natural that in 1950 he was elected chairman of the shipowners' association Dansk dampskibsrederiforening whose board he had been a member of since 1945. Christiansen resigned as chairman of this association 1953, when he took over the post of senior director in EAC, after Prince Axel had resigned from the company's executive board. One of the Christiansen's main tasks as senior director were to maintain EAC as a Danish company. In the spring of 1960, he spearheaded the first capital expansion in the company's history since 1918. The intention of the formation of the holding company was to protect Danish interests against the foreign share purchases that had taken place in the preceding years.

As a senior executive,Christiansen sat on a wide range of boards.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1955 March	18 March 1955	20 March 1955	France Barbizon	The second Bilderberg meeting, held in France. Just 42 guests, fewer than any other.
Bilderberg/1955 September	23 September 1955	25 September 1955	Germany Bavaria Garmisch-Partenkirchen	The third Bilderberg, in West Germany. The subject of a report by Der Spiegel which inspired a heavy blackout of subsequent meetings.
Bilderberg/1956	11 May 1956	13 May 1956	Denmark Fredensborg	The 4th Bilderberg meeting, with 147 guests, in contrast to the generally smaller meetings of the 1950s. Has two Bilderberg meetings in the years before and after
Bilderberg/1957 February	15 February 1957	17 February 1957	US St Simons Island Georgia (State)	The earliest ever Bilderberg in the year, number 5, was also first one outside Europe.
Bilderberg/1957 October	4 October 1957	6 October 1957	Italy Fiuggi	The 6th Bilderberg meeting, the latest ever in the year and the first one in Italy.
Bilderberg/1960	28 May 1960	29 May 1960	Switzerland Bürgenstock	The 9th such meeting and the first one in Switzerland. 61 participants + 4 "in attendance". The meeting report contains a press statement, 4 sentences long.

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