Suhaiwen

Helmut Sohmen OBE JP (10 December 1939 – ) is an Austrian lawyer and shipping executive. He earned an LL D from the University of Vienna, an MCL from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and an LL M from Northwestern University in Chicago, and practised law as legal counsel to the Royal Bank of Canada.

In the 1960s he married Pamela Pak, eldest daughter of shipping magnate Y. K. Pao, and moved to Hong Kong in 1970 to become Vice Chairman of Wah Kwong Maritime Transport and Asia Maritime. He joined the board of HSBC in 1984, serving until May 2007, and took over his father-in-law’s non-Japan shipping operations after Sir Y. K. Pao’s retirement in 1986 and death in 1991.

In March 2003, the Sohmen family acquired and privatized Norway’s largest shipping company Morten Bergesen and the largest LNG operator Petter Sundt. In 2004 they reorganized their global shipping operations into BW Group.

Controversy

In 2007 the former head of Xinhua’s Hong Kong bureau, Xu Jiatuan, stated in an interview that after the 1989 Tiananmen events, then‑Chamber chairman Helmut Sohmen proposed leasing Hong Kong for ten years at HK$100 billion for local self‑rule. Other senior PRC officials had made similar suggestions at the time.

Public offices

• Chairman, International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation
• Chairman, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce
• Vice Chairman, Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
• Chairman, Legal Committee, Hong Kong Shipowners Association
• Council Member, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Chairman, Board of Governors, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
• Member, Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee
• Unofficial Appointed Member of the Legislative Council

External links

• 2003 donation ceremony at the University of Science and Technology