Mille-Marie Treschow is a Norwegian woman described by the yellow press as "Norway's richest woman", although she's actually only the 5th richest according to Kapital. She is the owner of the family consortium

Consortium

A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....

, Treschow Fritzøe.

Family and education

Treschow is the daughter of Gerhard Aage and Nanna Treschow. She has previously been married three times, and is currently married to Norwegian former shop-owner of Rimi low-cost-stores and "self made man" Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen

Stein Erik Hagen is a Norwegian businessman. He is Chairman of the Board of Orkla, where he is a large owner, and holds large ownerships of Steen & Strøm, Jernia and Komplett through his family company Canica...

. Her previous marriage to Andreas Stang produced two children, Michael Andreas Stang Treschow, born in 1986, and Victoria Stang Treschow, born in 1989. She received an MBA

Master of Business Administration

The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...

 in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and she has additional economic studies from the United States of America and home economics studies from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Former nobility

Treschow belongs to a family, whose name is derived from "wooden shoe-maker" (Treskomager), and which was ennobled by letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

 in 1812 and as such for a short period of time belonged to the lower nobility in Norway. The institute of nobility

Norwegian nobility

Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...

 was abolished in Norway shortly after, in 1821, but her family retained the noble rights granted by the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 government during the union of Denmark-Norway, and she was as such counted as a member of the nobility in Denmark until her marriage to a commoner. Even if she as well as her children continue using the name Treschow (which is allowed under Norwegian law), they are not members of the Danish nobility.

Family tragedies

Usually the eldest son inherited the family businesses and the properties. But a series of unfortunate accidental deaths and tragedies during the 20th century, has led to Mille-Marie Treschow being in charge of the family and the company. Her father took over the business because his elder brother was killed in an avalanche in 1947. Her brother died in what appears to have been a shooting accident. The only thing found was the gun and the two young boys, which led to discreet speculations of collective suicide or murder. Her aunt was paralyzed in a diving accident, and died in 1952, only 39 years old.

Treschow Fritzøe

Treschow is the leader of the family consortium Treschow Fritzøe, which is the basis for the family’s leading role in wood, timber and rock-development. Due to the early death of her father she took over the company in 1986, just out of education abroad. Mille-Marie Treschow has an estimated private fortune of 1.5 billion Norwegian krone

Norwegian krone

The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

r (NOK) or about $250 million USD, and through her marriage to self-made billionaire

Billionaire

A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...

Stein Erik Hagen, who is considered to be worth about 10 billion NOK or about $2 billion USD.