Torbjörn Törnqvist (born 1953) is a Swedish

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

, and the CEO and co-founder of Gunvor, "one of the largest commodities conglomerates in the world", with the Russian billionaire,

Gennady Timchenko Gennady Nikolayevich Timchenko (russian: Геннадий Николаевич Тимченко, ''also spelled'' Guennadi Timtchenko; born 9 November 1952) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire businessman. He founded and owns the private inv ...

Early life

Törnqvist was born in 1953, in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden. He has a degree from

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

Career

Törnqvist co-founded Gunvor in 1997, and he is its CEO. In 2016, he reduced his stake in Gunvor from 78% to 70%, and received a special dividend of about $1 billion, part of which went to repay his co-founder

, who sold his 44% to Törnqvist in March 2014, a day before Timchenko was sanctioned by the US for his "close ties to Vladimir Putin".

Controversies

In 2017, a Swedish Radio documentary presented evidence that Gunvor had been involved in a Belarusian oil smuggling scheme under Törnqvist's watch, featuring corruption at the highest levels in the Belarus government. This documentary, which includes an interview with Törnqvist, won the 2017 Prix Europa award in the "Radio Current Affairs" category. Gunvor has officially denied any wrongdoing.

Sailing

Törnqvist is a keen sailor, and the head of

Artemis Racing Artemis Racing is a professional sailing team founded in 2006 by businessman and sailor Torbjörn Törnqvist, named after Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess. Timeline * 2007: won the MedCup circuit, then called Breitling Medcup, and the TP52 Wo ...

, who have competed in the America’s Cup.

Personal life

Törnqvist lives in Geneva, Switzerland. His first wife was Eva Birgitta Törnqvist. His second wife is Natalia Törnqvist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Törnqvist, Torbjörn 1953 births Living people Businesspeople from Stockholm Swedish expatriates in Switzerland Stockholm University alumni Swedish company founders Swedish billionaires Artemis Racing sailors