Nikolai Bent Paus (born 21 October 1944) is a Norwegian businessman and real estate investor. He was CEO of the construction company Eeg-Henriksen (now the Norwegian part of NCC AB), Norway's third largest construction company, from 1984 to 1997.[1] [2] Paus was also a major shareholder in the company until all the shares were bought by its then-largest shareholder NCC.[3] Most recently, Nikolai Paus was exposed as an intermediary of and beneficiary of the Playa Sol S.A. offshore entity incorporated in 1989 exposed in the Panama Papers[4] [5]
He graduated with a Master of Science degree in engineering from the Purdue University College of Engineering in 1968, and worked in the United States and Australia before joining Eeg-Henriksen in Norway in 1973. He became deputy CEO in 1983 and CEO in 1984. Eeg-Henriksen had major contracts in connection with the construction of Oslo Airport, Gardermoen in the 1990s. In 1986 Eeg-Henriksen also established a helicopter company.[6]
Nikolai Paus has been a board member of the Norwegian Export Council and of Eckbos Legat. I 1998 he co-founded the real estate company Optimo. The company was sold to Entra in 2010.[7]
A member of the Paus family, he is a son of the noted surgeon Bernhard Paus and of the humanitarian Brita Collett,[8] and is a grandson of the surgeon and humanitarian Nikolai Nissen Paus. He is a cohabitant of Hermine Kristin Muhle Midelfart (née Muhle), and is the step-father of the businesswoman Celina Midelfart.