Kristian Stensby is a Norwegian-American entrepreneur and businessman involved in the marine and particularly the cruise line industry. Kristian Stensby is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Group.

Background

Stensby spent 18 months in the Royal Norwegian Air Force (1975–76), before completing Section I of Norwegian Law Studies at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

in 1978. In 1980, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

, and subsequently completed a foreign student program at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, earning him a Siviløkonom degree from the Norwegian School of Management (''Handelshøyskolen BI'') in 1982. Stensby first became involved in the cruise industry in an investor/investment banking capacity with a Norwegian investment company owned by

Den norske Bank Den norske Bank or DnB was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1990 and 2003 when it merged with Gjensidige NOR to form DnB NOR (now DNB ASA). The bank's headquarters were in Bergen, Norway. DnB was created as a merger between Bergen Bank and ...

and later with

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

Career

In 1990, Stensby became the founder of

Premier Cruises Premier Cruises was a cruise line holding company formed in the early 1990s that focused on the family cruise market as well as on developing cruise operations in new geographic markets. The company's business focus was to acquire older cruise ves ...

and acted as Chairman and CEO up until 1997. Stensby also served as Treasurer of Kloster Cruise Limited (KCL), the parent company of

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

Royal Viking Line The Royal Viking Line was an upmarket cruise line that operated from 1972 until 1998. The company was the brain child of Warren Titus and had its headquarters at One Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. History The First Ships Each of the lin ...

, and

Royal Cruise Line Royal Cruise Line was a Greek cruise line that operated from 1974 to 1996 and founded by Pericles Panagopulos. The line catered mainly to American passengers looking for an upscale cruise experience and sailed mainly worldwide routes. History ...

. In 2002, Stensby was the founding partner of Ocean Group and has been involved in development projects within the passenger ship industry both on behalf of Ocean Group and related entities. Stensby was also the founder and promoter of the Ocean Residences ship, which together with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts was planning to build and operate a fully private residence ship.Times Online Services. May 6, 2007
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stensby, Kristian Living people American people of Norwegian descent University of Denver alumni San Francisco State University alumni University of Oslo alumni Year of birth missing (living people)