AKO Capital

Nicolai Tangen

Nicolai Tangen built AKO Capital into one of Europe's largest value-investing firms before leaving in 2020 to run Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global. A Norwegian, Tangen studied finance at the Wharton School in the early 1990s and then, unusually for a future money manager, took master's degrees in art history and economics in London. He started his career as an equity analyst at the investment bank Cazenove & Co., then spent about five years as a partner and senior analyst at the London hedge fund Egerton Capital. In 2005 he founded AKO Capital in London with Gorm Thomassen, a fellow Norwegian he had known since their time together in the Norwegian Intelligence Service, where both were trained in languages and interrogation. That background left a visible mark on how the firm invests: AKO runs a deliberately concentrated portfolio and holds positions for the long term, looking for quality businesses with durable competitive positions that it can own through a rigorous, research-driven process. The firm began with a focus on European equities and widened its scope to global markets in 2013. In 2020 Tangen left AKO to take the top job at Norges Bank Investment Management, stepping down as the firm's chief executive and chief investment officer. He also founded the AKO Foundation in 2013, a charitable vehicle supporting education, the arts, and climate initiatives.