Borge Bek-Nielsen, 79; Developed Palm Oil Industry in Malaysia

Borge Bek-Nielsen, 79, a Danish businessman who developed the palm oil industry in Malaysia during a Communist era, died Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after a short illness.

Bek-Nielsen, the former chairman of United Plantations, was considered the driving force in promoting Malaysian palm oil plantations and an industry that now generates about $8 billion a year. Trained as a mechanical engineer, he moved to what was then Malaya in 1951 to work for the Danish-owned company.

At the time, the country was in the grip of a communist insurgency. He kept a gun with him at all times, and he saw many of his friends killed by communists.

Bek-Nielsen started buying United Plantations shares in the 1960s, and by the mid-1970s, became its biggest shareholder. He led the establishment of the Malaysian Palm Oil Research Institute, and expanded his company into an international empire.