Chairman and Founder

Thor Björgólfsson is a self-styled “adventure capitalist”, who became Iceland’s first billionaire. Thor began investing in frontier markets in Russia in 1991, founding a bottling company that grew into the Bravo brewing group, subsequently sold to Heineken in 2002. Following that transaction, Thor founded Novator Partners in 2004, diversifying into telecommunications, digital innovation, and pharmaceuticals, thereby building a diverse portfolio of business investments. Active investor in emerging economies Today, through his firm Novator, Thor continues to be an active investor in the emerging economies of Central Europe as well as Latin America, India and his native country, Iceland. He also personally invests in cutting-edge sustainability initiatives including Princeville Capital, a fund for growth-stage tech companies focused on positively impacting climate change as well as David de Rothschild’s sustainable brand, The Lost Explorer, which focuses on protecting the heritage and biodiversity of Mexico. Disrupting the mobile sector worldwide Since 2006, Thor has progressively directed his attention towards the mobile telecommunications sector, and his extensive expertise across diverse markets is unparalleled. In 2006, he was one of the founders of the mobile company NOVA in Iceland, disrupting that small market with never before seen prices and dynamic marketing strategies, making NOVA Iceland‘s second largest mobile company. The year after, 2007, Thor created Play, a mobile start-up in Poland, that grew from nothing, into the leading mobile telecoms company in Poland with a 27 per cent market share. Bringing change to the Chilean market In 2015 Thor brought this extensive experience to the Chilean market when he saw a similar potential growth trajectory for the Chilean Nextel, which was then teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Thor and his partners successfully refinanced the company and rebranded it into WOM, a shortening for „Word of Mouth,“ the viral way they wanted to grow through personal recommendations offering great value and customer-centered service. When WOM launched, Chile was the most expensive country in the Latin American region in mobile telecommunication, but with WOM‘s new approach to prices, it immediately became the cheapest country in South America for consumer mobile telephony. Three thousand employees and over eight million subscribers Upon Novator's acquisition of Nextel Chile in 2015, the subscriber base was a modest 200,000. After the rebranding WOM has reached over eight million subscribers and is currently the second largest operator in Chile, with over three thousand employees and has already built the fastest 5G network in LATAM in Chile. Thor invests his personal wealth into his projects, and in the case of Chile, he has committed $1 billion to the country. Environmental enthusiast Thor is also an investor in health-focused companies such as Sidekick, a digital therapeutics company, and Touchlight, a British biotechnology firm; Rebag, the leading luxury resale platform; and technology firms such as Zwift, a global multiplayer video game platform for the indoor cycling, running, and fitness community; Cazoo, a rapidly expanding e-commerce business focused on selling used cars online; and Undisputed, a video game anticipated to fill the gap in the sports gaming market for boxing. Thor has supported numerous philanthropic causes throughout the years, both in his home country, Iceland as well as in London. Furthermore, Thor has extended his efforts in alternative countries where he has assisted in various projects concerning environmental issues and numerous charitable causes. As well as this Thor has supported his alma mater, New York University’s Stern School of Business, as well as the Young Global Leaders’ programs so as to assist students and upcoming entrepreneurs from developing nations unleash their potential. Billions to Bust – and Beyond Thor’s autobiography, “Billions to Bust—and Back: How I Made, Lost and Rebuilt a Fortune, And What I Learned on the Way” was published in 2014.