Olympia Paus

[1] Born in Greece to Norwegian parents who moved to London when she was three, she was raised in Holland Park and has been a permanent resident of the United Kingdom since 1979.

[4][5] Her cousin has rejected their offer and disputed the claim that the company has a patriarchal structure.

[6] She was born in the port town of Piraeus in the Athens urban area in Greece to Norwegian parents Christopher Paus (b.

Her parents moved to Greece immediately after their wedding in 1972 when her father became an executive with Citibank's shipping division in Greece; in 1979 the family moved to London where Christopher Paus was a vice president with Citibank before becoming an independent investor in the shipping and petroleum industry through his company Pausco with offices in London and Oslo.

Through her great-grandfather Peder Anker Wedel-Jarlsberg, the Lord Chamberlain (head of the royal court) and close confidant of King Haakon VII, Olympia Paus descends from the statesman and viceroy Herman Wedel Jarlsberg.

[9] In 2020 she, her sister and five other female relatives (four cousins and an aunt) who combined own around 60% of the Wilhelmsen family's stake in the family's companies launched a battle for control over the Wilhelmsen family's main holding company, due to the fact that her cousin, Wilhelmsen CEO Thomas Wilhelmsen, holds the only vote in the company although the female family members own the majority of the shares; they said that the company has a patriarchal ownership structure that deprives women of control, and questioned its legitimacy.

[5][10][11][12][13][14] In September 2020 Olympia Paus, on behalf of the female relatives, offered their cousin and nephew Thomas Wilhelmsen $353 million for his shares in the family company in a bid to buy him out, on the condition that he leaves the company entirely and resigns as CEO.

[4][15] Thomas Wilhelmsen has disputed that the company has a patriarchal ownership structure and rejected the buyout offer from the female relatives.