Jørgen Rossen was born as the son of Gerda Sloth (1908-1970) and chemical engineer, manufacturer Nicolai Jacob Rossen II (1903-1972) on 11 September 1929, just weeks before the crash on Wall Street, and grew up in an entrepreneurial home in Frederiksberg with many ups and downs; during the occupation he avoided, among other things even the partially failed Shellhus bombing that hit Frederiksberg Allé, where he went to school.
After the war, Rossen trained as a civil engineer at the Polytechnic Institute and in 1956 immigrated to the USA, where he settled first in Yellow Springs, OH and then in Chicago, IL and New York City, NY. Here he married and had children Eric Arthur (1959-) and Anita (1962-) with botanist, ethnographer, Dr.phil Jane Mink (1932-2024), became an American citizen and employed at General Foods – today Kraft, Inc. Under the wing of his mentor, the American food expert Clarence Francis , Rossen quickly rose through the ranks and became a technical consultant in charge of the company’s factories in Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba, which he arrived in the middle of the revolution in the same year that Castro ousted Batista from power ( 1959).
Astronomy and properties
With John F. Kennedy’s moon speech and the space race, Jørgen Rossen became preoccupied with life’s big questions and decided to return home to pursue a master’s degree in astrophysics at the University of Copenhagen, which he completed in 1968. He then published two popular science books on astronomy, Orienteering in Verdensrummet (1969) and Verdensrummet & Vi with the chemist Poul Bergsøe (1972), while he simultaneously changed industries and entered the world of M&A, which became the highlight of his career.
In 1967, he founded the brokerage Rossen & Sadolin – later Sadolin & Albæk, today part of Colliers – with his schoolmate Pelle Sadolin, specializing in the purchase and sale of properties and companies. The breakthrough came in 1969 with the sale of Premier Is, and then a string of successful deals followed through the 70s and 80s, with e.g. Palace Hotel, Domus Vista and the construction of the Cityarkaden in Copenhagen, of which Rossen became a co-owner. However, Sadolin wanted to focus on the purchase and sale of commercial properties in Copenhagen, which is why Rossen went solo with his own international consulting and brokerage business in 1982.
The Egtofte mansion and the HC Andersen house
After his marriage to Jane Mink ended, in 1981 he bought the former B&W boss Jan Bonde-Nielsen ‘s mansion at Egtoftevej 11 in Vedbæk, later Denmark’s most expensive house , where he moved into; first briefly with the world-renowned Danish-Bulgarian concert pianist Assia Zlatkova (1953-), and then with photographer, visual artist, writer Suste Bonnén (1948-), whom he married and had the boys Nicolai Frederik III (1987-) and Sophus (1990) -) with. For the following 12 years, Egtofte laid the framework for Rossen’s presence in Danish business and cultural life as well as the media image with numerous music events that brought celebrities, artists and musicians from home and abroad to Vedbæk. He himself described the period as the happiest of his life and applied for his American citizenship in the same period.
Rossen’s commitment to cultural life culminated when he bought the property Nyhavn 69 in 1989 to establish an HC Andersen museum in Copenhagen. The project was realized in 1990 amid pomp and pageantry and with the issuing of an HC Andersen award inspired by the Nobel Prize, which Rossen managed to award to the actors Max von Sydow and Liza Minelli during celebrated ceremonies. The third recipient was to be Steven Spielberg , although the museum had to close in 1992 before the award, as the social democratic city council in Copenhagen did not want to support the project, which Rossen had to finance out of his own hard-pressed pockets. The party in Nyhavn ended, while Rossen divorced Suste Bonnén in 1993 and moved from Vedbæk to Stockholmsgade 43 in Copenhagen, where he managed to live for 27 years.
The key to a long and happy life
For the past three decades, through his 70s, 80s and even 90s, Jørgen Rossen remained active in the Danish M&A world, where he, among other things, was behind the sale of the American National Cleaning Company to ISS and the foundation of the Scandinavian growth exchange IM-Markedet together with, among others Poul Schlüter , although the primary focus became family, adventure travel and the ability to constantly set himself new challenges: At the age of 70, Rossen began to stand on roller skates, play golf and study French, at the age of 80, swimming and strength training, and as At 83, he responded to the housing shortage in Copenhagen by launching the association ISCC, which continues to fight to build a student village in Amager.
However, at the age of 86, Jørgen Rossen returned to astronomy to republish his second book in a revised solo edition with the questioning title Verdensrummet & We – Are we alone? He analyzed the question in the book, which was published in connection with Rossen’s 90th birthday, where he was also interviewed by journalist Poul Pilgaard for WeekendAvisen’s podcast Flaskens Ånd to take stock of his long and eventful life.
In connection with the 90th birthday, Jørgen Rossen stated:
“The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. Humanity has many problems to contend with in order to survive on this planet, and the way is through education. It’s never too late to learn; curiosity is our driving force, and the Universe is full of mysteries waiting for us to discover – we are only at the beginning of the exploration of the solar system and the Universe. The key to a long and happy life is never to stand still or retire.“
Life has been “wonderful”
In the last five years, Jørgen Rossen managed to write and publish his first and last book about space, namely Faren fra Rummet (Forlaget Historia, 2022), to become a significant minority shareholder in listed Scandion Oncology , to have three more grandchildren as well as exercising twice a week after he moved in 2020 to the property and hotel complex Charlottehaven on Østerbro, where he also found time to read about new scientific topics such as artificial intelligence and the singularity .
In connection with his 95th birthday on 11 September 2024, which was celebrated with new and old friends at a family party in Hellerup, Jørgen Rossen stated succinctly:
“Count your blessings”.
