Johan Berthin Holte was a Norwegian businessperson.

He was born in Notodden

Notodden

is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Notodden....

, and graduated in chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 from the Norwegian Institute of Technology

Norwegian Institute of Technology

The Norwegian Institute of Technology, known by its Norwegian abbrevation NTH was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 85 years, after which it was merged into the University of Trondheim as an independent...

 in 1938. He was hired in Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro

Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...

 in 1948 as head of their Notodden department. He advanced to become director of research from 1957 to 1964 and assisting director-general from 1964 to 1966. In 1967 he was hired as director-general (CEO). He stayed in this position until 1977; after this he was chairman of the board from 1977 to 1985.

He was married to Eva Bull Holte.