Vom fisherman to billionaire, that’s the Norwegian version of the ascent fairy tale. Nobody else in the land of the fjords has realized it as quickly as Kjell Inge Røkke. The son of a skilled worker from the coastal town of Molde, who began his career after school on a fishing trawler, made his fortune in America at a young age, returned to his native Norway in his mid-40s and bought a highly profitable company there around the Aker group maritime industry empire together: fishing, special shipbuilding, oil and gas production, salmon farming.
In addition, he occasionally delighted his compatriots, who generally tend to be more reserved in public, with extravagances. That’s another reason why it’s making headlines in Norway that Røkke, one of the few business celebrities in the country, has packed his bags. He moved to Lugano, Switzerland. And all of Norway thinks it knows: It’s an escape from taxes.
