Karine hagen biography for kids

Torstein Hagen is the Norwegian billionaire founder and chairman of Viking Cruises, the biggest river cruise company in the world that he founded in 1997 at 54 years old.

Viking operates 78 river ships and 6 ocean ships.

Torstein owns 75% of Viking and his net worth amounts to $1.5 billion as these lines are written.

This is his story.

Beginnings

Torstein was born in Norway in 1943.

He studied physics at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, wrote a master thesis on artificial intelligence and machine learning, then went on to get an MBA at Harvard in 1968.

He subsequently went back to Europe and worked for McKinsey.

In the early 70s, his employer sent him to work for the cruise company Holland America Line which was near bankruptcy. He saved it by telling HAL to sell the cargo business which was profitable, and use the money to build the cruise business which was not.

He was right. Holland America Line went on to sell for $625 million to Carnival in 1989.

As for Hagen, his experience with HAL made him confident enough to offer his help to the then-struggling Bergen Steamship Company in 1976.

Bergen was a Norwegian steamships business ferrying both passengers and merchandise between Norway and the UK. They liked Hagen and hired him as CEO.

Hagen fi

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