Fred Olsen Cruise Lines chairman Thomas Fredrik Olsen Jr has stepped down after 35 years with his family’s companies.
No replacement has been made so far, according to a statement by Fred Olsen Cruise managing director Peter Deer.
Deer and other officials of Fred Olsen Cruise and Oslo-listed parent company Bonheur did not immediately reply to a request for comment from TradeWinds. Fred Olsen group holding company Bonheur is the majority shareholder in NHST Media Group, which owns TradeWinds.
But the company issued a press release yesterday to a travel publication confirming that the departure had taken place last month.
“Olsen Jr has been through the business through thick and thin and he just made that decision. He said it was the right time to step down,” Deer said in a statement quoted by UK-based Travel Weekly.
Deer added: “The boards for Fred Olsen Cruise Lines and our holding company continue to comprise Fred Olsen [referring to Thomas Fredrik Olsen, 93,] and Anette Olsen. All of us at Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, and our board, send our sincere thanks to Fred Olsen Jr for his support and long service to our company.”
Olsen, 62, is known as Freddy Junior within the company, according to the Puente de Mando online newspaper in the Canary Islands, where the ferry network Fred Olsen Express serves several interisland connections and generations of the family have maintained an estate on the island of La Gomera.
Documents filed with the UK Companies House confirmed that Olsen Jr, a resident of Spain, had resigned as of early July from directorships with UK registered entities Fred Olsen Cruise Ltd and First Olsen Holding Ltd. Corporate records in Norway indicate that he had not recently held positions with Norwegian-domiciled family companies other than private investment vehicles.
Olsen Jr most recently appeared in the maritime publication Puente de Mando viewing the La Palma volcanic eruption last November from a Fred Olsen Cruise Lines vessel, the 1,772-passenger Bolette (built 2000), and earlier with wife Adriana Olsen christening a new Fred Olsen Express trimaran ropax ferry, the 1,100-passenger Bajamar Express (built 2020) in May of last year.
