Jacob Stolt-Nielsen Jr. (12 May 1931 – 15 February 2015) was a Norwegian entrepreneur. The founder of Stolt-Nielsen Limited, he is widely credited as the creator of the parcel tanker concept. He also pioneered and built successful businesses in tank containers, offshore oilfield services and aquaculture. He served as a director on the board of Stolt-Nielsen Limited, where his son, Niels Gregers Stolt-Nielsen, is chief executive officer.
Biography
After a few years as shipping trainee, Stolt-Nielsen, worked as a shipbroker in New York. There, he was briefly associated with Charles Steuber Sr., at whose house he was married in 1957, and the two conceived of the idea for a new pump and pipeline system for tank ships which would permit a tanker to safely segregate multiple grades of dangerous chemicals, after first converting the MT Freddy. The brief business association between the two was short-lived because of divergent priorities. Based on the new design, Stolt-Nielsen started his own company, Parcel Tankers Inc, Liberia, in 1959. His ships were called parcel tankers and the trade became known as the Parcel Trade. The company grew very fast and is still today the largest owner and operator of parcel tankers in the world, now operating a fleet of about 150 ships ranging in size from 450 to 45,000 dwt. The business is to run parcel tankers in regular, scheduled liner service, transporting as many as 20/25 parcels of different liquid chemicals on each ship. The company operates such services all over the world.[1][2]