Words by Smiley Team
Norwegian investor Nicolai Tangen is behind one of the world’s most successful hedge funds, London-based AKO Capital, and his personal fortune stands at £550m.
He is also one of the UK’s most generous philanthropists, and the Sunday Times Giving List put his recent contributions to good causes at £77m.
Tangen’s giving is mostly channeled through the AKO Foundation which he established in 2013 with his wife Katja.
The foundation focuses on making grants to causes linked with the arts, education, culture and climate change.
The Tangens decided to join the Giving Pledge in 2019, an organisation of ultra rich philanthropists who have pledged to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetime, or in their estate.
In the pledge Tangen, 54, a keen art collector, explains why philanthropy is so important to him and his wife: “Our focus is on education and the arts, and our belief in the change that both of these can make to the lives of others is a big motivational factor.
“Nothing is more satisfying than seeing how education transforms lives, and the return for society generated by investment in education will always outweigh financial returns.
“At the end of the day, this is not about Katja and myself or even about the AKO Foundation, it is about the sort of world we should be living in: a world which is fair, which gives and creates opportunities, and in which we all share.”
The couple’s foundation has so far given away more than £100m to causes around the world, and takes pride in having a ‘lean’ administration and quick decision-making process, meaning the greatest possible proportion of its resources are made available to support beneficiaries.
Charities who have benefited from grants include the UK-based Lively Minds, a charity working in rural Africa where their ‘volunteer mothers’ project recruits local women to run free and informal play schemes for early years children in their villages.
Other projects include the Mosvold-Martinus Trust which seeks to improve the lives of young people in Sri Lanka, and has offered scholarships to allow disadvantaged students to pursue higher education either at university or through vocational training.
To find out more about the AKO Foundation visit their website or follow them on Twitter.
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