Henri Deterding

Who was Henri Deterding?

Henri Wilhelm August Deterding KBE, was one of the first executives of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and for 36 years its chairman and the chairman of the combined Royal Dutch/Shell oil company. He came to power after the early death of the Royal Dutch's original leader, Jean Baptiste August Kessler. He made it to the runner up against John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil and it is still one of the world's largest petroleum companies. He was made an honorary KBE in 1920, ostensibly for service to Anglo-Dutch relations, but mainly for his work supplying Allies with petroleum during World War I.

Called the "Napoleon of Oil", Deterding was responsible for developing the tanker fleet that let Royal Dutch compete with the Shell company of Marcus Samuel. He led Royal Dutch to several major mergers and acquisitions, including a merger with Samuel's "Shell" Transport and Trading Company in 1907 and the purchase of Azerbaijan oil fields from the Rothschild family in 1911. In the last years of his life, Deterding became controversial when he became an admirer of the German Nazi party.