Thorleif Enger is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 businessperson

Businessperson

A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...

 and Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of Yara International

Yara International

Yara International ASA is a Norwegian-based chemical company. Its largest business area is the production of nitrogen fertilizer, however it also encompasses the production of dry ice, nitrates, ammonia, urea and other nitrogen-based chemicals....

.

Enger was educated as a structural engineer

Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....

 at the University of Colorado

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he earned Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees. He worked for Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 until 1973, after which he moved to Norway to work for Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...

. He was director of the Oseberg oil field

Oseberg oil field

Oseberg is an offshore oil field with a gas cap in the North Sea located northwest of the city of Bergen on the southwestern coast of Norway....

 1982–86, and from then until 1996 was president of the exploration and production division. He was then executive vice president of oil and energy until 1999, when he became executive vice president of Hydro Agri; when this was demerged to create Yara in 2004 he became its CEO. He is also president of the International Fertilizer Industry Association

International Fertilizer Industry Association

The International Fertilizer Industry Association or IFA is a not-for-profit trade association that represents the global fertilizer industry, on issues related to the promotion of plant nutrients, improvement of the operating environment of the member companies and the collection and compilation...

 and was chair of Telenor

Telenor

Telenor Group is the incumbent telecommunications company in Norway, with headquarters located at Fornebu, close to Oslo. Today, Telenor Group is mostly an international wireless carrier with operations in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Asia, working predominantly under the Telenor brand...

 2003–07.

He announced his retirement in September 2008, to be replaced by Jørgen Ole Haslestad.

See also

• Allegations of corruption involving Yara International in Libya