Thankfully modern Scandinavians in search of riches no longer have to plunder Europe in search of their wealth.

As mentioned in our previous feature, the Nordic region is home to a surprisingly high number of hedge funds. One of the biggest in the world is not a Nordic-domiciled fund but given its management team it surely deserves coverage on Nordic Intelligence.

The menacingly-named Viking Global Investors is the tenth-largest fund in the world, with an incredible £18.15 billion under management.

The fund manager Andreas Halvorsen has one of the most impressive backgrounds for a finance whiz. He is a former member of special forces team Marinejegerkommandoen, the Norwegian equivalent of the US Navy Seals.

After a stint in the army he studied at the Stanford Business School in California and entered the hedge-fund industry under Julian Robertson, the founder of the Tiger Fund which spawned other proteges such as Stephen Mandel, David Goel and Paul Touradji.

One of the highest-paid fund managers in the world, he runs the fund from Connecticut, with his fund returning an impressive 13 per cent last year. The fourth-richest man in Norway, he keeps a low profile and tends to make few interviews.