The annual general meeting of Wilh Wilhelmsen Holding elected Thomas Borgen as a new board member on Thursday.
He was elected for a period of two years with close to 100% of the votes, the company told TradeWinds.
“Thomas F Borgen brings extensive experience from international capital markets and strategy management, including as CEO of Danske Bank and senior advisor with Bain & Co as well as Reiten & Co., a private equity company in the Nordic region,” Jan Gunnar Hartvig, chair of the nomination committee, said in an email.
Borgen was chief executive of Danske Bank from 2013 to 2018, the culmination of a long career at Denmark’s largest bank.
He resigned in 2018 after one of the biggest money-laundering scandals ever.
Danske Bank in Estonia was involved for several years in suspicious transactions of hundreds of billions of dollars that flowed from Russia, the Baltic states and other sources.
Borgen was charged by Danish authorities in 2019 for neglecting his responsibilities. All charges against him were dropped in 2021.
In December 2022, Danske Bank pleaded guilty to fraud on US banks and agreed to forfeit $2bn in a case brought by the US Department of Justice.
“The nomination committee always makes a thorough assessments of all candidates that are nominated for the board of Wilh Wilhelmsen Holding AS,” Hartvig said.
Borgen is also chair of Kongsberg Digital.
Hartvig explained that “qualifications, personality as well as past experiences are included in the overall assessment of the candidates best suited to complement the board as well as the company management”.
Borgen replaces Trond Westlie, who has resigned.
Earlier this year, Westlie was appointed finance chief of Danish renewable energy company Orsted.
He was previously CFO of AP Moller-Maersk and Norwegian telecom operator Telenor.
The AGM also re-elected Rebekka Glasser Herlofsen and Ulrika Laurin as board members for two years.
The other Wilhelmsen directors are chairman Carl E Steen and Morten Borge.
Another former bank CEO, Rune Bjerke, is chairman of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the car carrier owner backed by Wilhelmsen.
Bjerke led Norway’s biggest bank, DNB, from 2007 to 2019.
