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Ralph Sonnenberg

  • Dutch nationality or passport

Ralph Sonnenberg

Manufacturing executive

Ralph Sonnenberg is Chairman and CEO of the Hunter Douglas Group, a Dutch multinational that manufactures window coverings and architectural products. He has been CEO since 1971. In 2010 Ralph Sonnenberg was the fifth richest man in the Netherlands. His fortune is estimated at $1.6 billion.

File details

Ralph Sonnenberg became an HSBC client in 1996. He was linked to a client account bearing his name, formerly numbered account “5562” until 2000. The account held as much as $13.3 million in 2006/2007 and listed 10 bank accounts. Sonnenberg was registered as “without profession (manage the fortune of the family)” in the HSBC leaked files. The leaked files do not specify the exact role that he had in relation to the account. Hunter Douglas of which he is CEO also had a client account under the name “Hunter Douglas International N.V.” that held as much as $3.3 million in 2006/2007.

Comment

Margriet Osterholt, secretary to Sonnenberg, told ICIJ that he is the “majority shareholder and CEO of Hunter Douglas N.V., an industrial company listed on Euronext. The Company has had an assembly plant and sales office as well as bank accounts in Switzerland for many years.” She noted: “As a wealthy business man living in Switzerland Mr. Sonnenberg, as many other Swiss residents, has bank accounts there.”