Paul Fentener van Vlissingen

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Paul Fentener van Vlissingen (Utrecht, March 21, 1941 – Langbroek, August 21, 2006) was a Dutch businessman and philanthropist.

Van Vlissingen inherited the company SHV Holdings from his family, who founded the company more than a century ago. He served as the director of the company until 1995, when he stepped down and then served as non Executive Chairman. SHV is the largest privately owned company in the Netherlands.

Van Vlissingen also contributed to the development of game reserves in Scotland, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Ethiopia. In 2006, he was the biggest foreign landowner in Scotland, owning the 80,000 acre Letterewe estate in Wester Ross, and had proposed reintroducing wolves and lynx to this estate (see [1]). He was also a great supporter of Scottish Gaelic, and donated several hundred thousand pounds to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a college on Skye (see[2]).

The Sunday Times Rich List 2005 ranked Van Vlissingen as the richest man in Scotland, with an estimated wealth of £1.1 billion.

After suffering from pancreatic cancer, he founded the Van Vlissingen Cancer Fund, which is now one of the major cancer fundraisers in the Netherlands.

In 2001 he wrote a book entitled Ondernemers zijn ezels (ISBN 90-5018-295-X), which can be translated as Entrepreneurs Are Jackasses. In this book he discussed his experiences directing a large multi-national conglomerate.

He followed this up in 2002 with a book entitled Overstekende ezels (ISBN 90-5018-583-5), translated as Crossing Jackasses. In this book he discusses his views regarding entrepreneurs, corruption, ambition, the Euro, money, honesty, change and success.

In August 2006, his Pancreatic Cancer aggravated, and this lead to his death during the night of the 20^th-21^st August 2006. The information of his death was released to the public on the 22^nd of August. Many broadcasters stated (wrongly) that Van Vlissingen was the middle child of the three Van Vlissingen brothers in fact, Paul was the youngest, John was the middle child and is last alive and Frits the eldest, who died in March 2006.