Thor Bjorgolfsson

borrowed money.

In 2004, he founded Novator Partners, an alternative investment firm. He has strategically developed the company to allow it to maintain maximum flexibility as well as to facilitate investments in both strategic (buy and hold) and financial (buy and exit) opportunities.

With Novator, Thor leverages private equity as well as macro investments and manages assets across a variety of sectors and geographic locations. He is an active investor in emerging economies including Central and Eastern Europe as well as Latin America.

Novator Partners has been a major player in telecom businesses. Thor is a stakeholder in a Polish telecom company called Play, which went public in 2017. In addition, he holds shares in WOM, a Chilean telecommunications firm.

Bjorgolfsson’s first fortune was made in post-soviet Russia. At a time when others perceived Russia to be tumultuous, he saw an underserved market that presented an exciting opportunity to invest in great ideas and businesses. He co-founded and developed Bravo Brewery, which produced beer and alcopops. Bravo became one of Russia’s premier brewing companies, particularly through its popular Botchkarov beer brand. Thor sold the business in 2002 to Heineken for $100 million.

With the sale of Bravo, he was able to diversify his holdings by reinvesting in new ventures, focusing on telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and banks. In a few years, he was able to turn that $100 million into a net worth of over $2.1 billion.

A year after being featured on the 2007 cover of Forbes Magazine, Iceland went nearly bankrupt overnight and Thor found himself at the epicenter of the financial crisis. As a major shareholder in Landsbanki with personal guarantees of 350m euro, he refused to declare bankruptcy and eventually succeeded in paying off all of it. He then went on to invest in new businesses, re-establishing himself and being featured on the Forbes list of billionaires once again.

During this time of rejuvenation, he wrote Billions to Bust and Back: How I Made, Lost and Rebuilt a Fortune, And What I Learned on the Way (2014). In the book, he shares his perspective of what it was like to be at the center of the storm and how he made it back to financial success. He proposes that the greatest strength an entrepreneur can possess is a positive attitude.

The 52-year-old Thor was educated in the United States where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from New York University. In 2005, he was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

In spite of his intense schedule, Thor enjoys sharing his experience and business insight, making him a sought-after speaker. A multilingual Icelandic citizen, Thor spends most of his time in London, living with his wife and three children. Thor's personal passion is his collection of six motorcycles, which he rides whenever time permits.