Kjell Erik Almskog (born 5 January 1941) is a Norwegian businessman. He is the former

chief executive officer 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 especially ...

(CEO) of several companies, including the Norwegian division of the

ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

and

Kværner Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 2008 ...

Personal life and education

He was born in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

as a son of company manager Reidar Juel Almskog (1910–1982) and Aslaug Magnhild Carlsen. He

finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...

his secondary education in 1959, and received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

in 1964. He attended the six-week Advanced Management Program at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

from 1974 to 1975.

Career

He was the brand manager for

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...

in London from 1967 to 1971, before becoming the marketing director at Simrad from 1971 to 1976. He became a director in Elektrisk Union in 1976 and then chief executive officer of its daughter companies National Industri in 1979, then National Elektro in 1981. In 1986 he became chief executive officer of

Elektrisk Bureau Elektrisk Bureau or EB was a Norwegian manufacturer of telecommunication equipment. It was founded in 1882 and lasted until 1993 when it became part of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). The company was located at Billingstad in Asker. History In 1882 ...

, which soon merged with Elektro Union. In 1988 it also merged with

ABB ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

. Almskog remained the chief executive of ABB Norway until 1998, and in the autumn he was promoted to vice chief executive at ABB's main headquarters in Switzerland. During his time at ABB, Almskog built up the company's oil and gas division from scratch. In 1999, Almskog became chief executive officer of

, after

Erik Tønseth Erik Tønseth (7 August 1946 – 12 December 2022) was a Norwegian jurist and industrialist. Tønseth was born in Drøbak and held the cand.jur. degree. He headed the agricultural branch of Norsk Hydro from 1979. He was CEO of Kværner Industrie ...

. Kværner paid a significant sign-on fee. However, Almskog came into conflict with one of the company's main

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

Kjell Inge Røkke Kjell Inge Røkke (born 25 October 1958) is a Norwegian billionaire businessman. Røkke launched his business career with the purchase of a trawler in the United States in 1982, and gradually built a leading worldwide fisheries business. In 1 ...

, as Røkke wanted to remove Almskog from the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

, and Almskog left the company in 2001 when Røkke took over the ownership in Kværner. Both Almskog's time as Kværner CEO, as well as the circumstances regarding his departure were amidst controversy. Shortly after taking his position at Kværner, Almskog announced that all the company's

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s would be put up for sale. Former Kværner director

Diderik Schnitler Diderik Børsting Schnitler (born 23 October 1946) is a Norwegian businessperson. He hails from Stabekk, and in his younger days he was the treasurer and an active tennis player for Stabekk TK. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technolo ...

blamed Aker Kværner's troubles with the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

shipyard on this decision. Martin Saarikangas, leader of Kværner Masa Yards, and the shipyard division, labelled Almskog a "wandering catastrophe". When Almskog left Kværner, the company was in economic crisis, but despite this Almskog received a

golden parachute A golden parachute is an agreement between a company and an employee (usually an upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated. These may include severance pay, cash bonuses, s ...

worth . Almskog had also received a NOK 600,000 wage increase shortly before leaving. He has since served on the board of the

Orkla Group Orkla ASA is a Norwegian conglomerate operating in the Nordic region, Eastern Europe, Asia and the US. At present, Orkla operates in the branded consumer goods, aluminium solutions and financial investment sectors. Orkla ASA is listed on the Os ...

,Kjell E. Almskog
profile at orkla.no and is now the chairman of the board at

Intex Resources Intex Resources () is an international mining company based in Norway. Its portfolio consists of non-precious minerals and the main project is a nickel project in Mindoro in the Philippines. Other projects include Hurdal and Ramnes, both molybden ...

.About Us (Intex Resources)
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Almskog, Kjell Erik Norwegian business executives 1941 births Living people Kværner Orkla ASA people Businesspeople from Oslo University of Kansas alumni Norwegian expatriates in Switzerland Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian expatriates in the United Kingdom 20th-century Norwegian businesspeople