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C H A I R M A N   E M E R I T U S Helmut Sohmen Chairman World-Wide Shipping Agency Ltd.

HELMUT SOHMEN was born in 1939 in Linz, Austria, and has been a resident of Hong Kong since 1970. Sohmen is Chairman and President of the World-Wide Shipping group of companies which own and operate a tanker and bulk carrier fleet of some 12 million tons deadweight from offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London, Bermuda and Toronto. He also serves on the boards of several other companies, including HSBC Holdings plc in London, and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong. In the 1980s, he was a Hong Kong Legislative Councillor and also headed the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association. He participated as the member from Austria in the work of the ASEAN-EU Eminent Persons Group and the ASEM Vision Group. He is the Honorary Chairman of the Austro-Chinese Friendship Society in Vienna. From 1985 to 1989 he was Managing Director of Dragonair. Sohmen was founding Chairman of PBEC's Hong Kong, China Member Committee (1989-1998), and PBEC International Chairman from 1998 till 2000. Sohmen was educated in law in Austria and in the United States. He is married to Anna Pao and they have three children.