Henri Deterding
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Henri Wilhelm August Deterding KBE (Hon), (19 April 1866, Amsterdam - 4 February 1939, St Moritz) was for many years the chairman of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and then Royal Dutch/Shell, one of the world's largest oil companies.
Called the "Napoleon of Oil", Deterding was responsible for developing the tanker fleet that let Royal Dutch compete with the Shell company of Marcus Samuel. He led Royal Dutch to several major mergers and acquisitions, including a merger with the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company in 1907 and the purchase of Azerbaijan oil fields from the Rothschild family in 1911. Deterding engendered controversy in 1935 when he gave the Nazis a year's oil reserves on credit and was forced to resign from the company's board the next year.
He was made an honorary KBE in 1920 for service to Anglo/Dutch relations, but mainly for his work supplying Allies with petroleum during WWI.
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[edit] References
Paul Hendrix (2002). Sir Henri Deterding and Royal Dutch–Shell: Changing Control of World Oil, 1900–1940. Bristol Academic Press. ISBN 0-9513762-8-4.de:Henri Deterding eo:Henri Deterding nl:Henri Deterding
