Petter Stordalen
Encyclopedia
Petter Anker Stordalen is a Norwegian investor
, hotel
"tycoon
", property
developer
and environmentalist
. He has an estimated personal net worth
of NOK
7-11 billion
(NOK 8.7 bn according to Kapital – Norwegian financial monthly) stemming from investments in hotels, shopping centers and properties. Stordalen is a self-made business man. Through his company Nordic Choice Hotels, Stordalen owns in excess of 170 hotels and employs more than 9200 people.
, Norway to grocer
Knut Anker Stordalen (1933–94) and Kari Stordalen. At the age of ten he began working in his father’s grocery store
and at the age of twelve he began selling strawberries at the local market. He already then displayed his acumen for business, being named “Norway’s top strawberry seller” in the local paper, Porsgrunns Dagblad
, in 1974, beating out his competition of 50-60 year old market ladies. Following high school
he attended Kjøpmannsinstituttet for one year, he then managed his father's store for a short time before going off to the Norwegian School of Marketing.
, in Trondheim
as the country’s youngest shopping center manager. This coincided with his finals at the Norwegian School of Marketing so rumor has it that he had his secretary compile and type his final paper. After posting record profits at City Syd he became property director in Atle Brynestad's company Made in. As property director Stordalen was the architect behind the conversion of the former market area in downtown Trondheim and the re-launch of Liertoppen shopping centre outside Oslo. He was also put in charge of the Bik Bok brand
Following a number of transactions within the Brynestad system Stordalen, at the age of 29, found himself an employee of Realkreditt
’s (later DnB) property development company. Together with a group of investors Stordalen bought the historical department store
Steen & Strøm
in downtown Oslo
. The group recouped their investment of NOK 20 million in the first five days of the reopening. The purchase of Steen & Strøm signaled the start of a wave of acquisitions, and in the span of three years the newly formed company, Steen & Strøm Invest, became the country’s largest holder of commercial real estate. The expansion
lasted until 1996 when Stordalen had a falling out with the largest shareholder
, Stein Erik Hagen
, and was asked to leave his position as CEO.
. In October 1996 the duo bought 68 percent of the shares in the Scandinavian
operations of Choice Hotels
for NOK 100 million. At the time the chain consisted of 8 hotels across Scandinavia
. Following the acquisition Stordalen started his expansion, following the same model as in Steen & Strøm Invest, buying Swedish
hotel chain Home as well as Norwegian hotel company InterNor, and taking Choice Hotels Scandinavia public. During a three-year period Choice Hotels Scandinavia bought, on average, a new hotel every other week and added 50 people to the payroll
every 10 days. In December 1997 Sveaas sold his 37 percent share of the now 77 hotels. In 1999 Christian Ringnes and his company Eiendomsspar acquired a 35 percent share in Choice Hotels Scandinavia. After a short power struggle, Ringnes folded and Stordalen cemented his control over the company. The same year Stordalen also saw the acquisition
of several Swedish and Danish
hotels, including the Danish hotel company Nordisk Hotel Group, Stenungsbaden Yacht Club and Stockholm Globe
Hotel. At the turn of the millennium
, at age 37, Stordalen became a billionaire
(in Norwegian krone
).
interest. In 2006 Capona changed name to Home Properties. In 2005 Home Invest bought the remaining shares in Choice Hotels Scandinavia and delisted the company. In 2006 Home Properties spins off Home Capital as an investment company
and lists it on the First North Stock Exchange in Stockholm
. In 2007 Stordalen’s Home Invest acquires all the shares in Home Capital and delists the company. In 2009 Stordalen does the same with Home Properties. Stordalen now privately controlled all the building blocks needed to complete his current business structure. (see investments)
The foundation for his business philosophy, coined The strawberry philosophy, stems from a deeply formative memory selling strawberries for his dad during his childhood summers. When complaining to his dad about the quality of the berries his dad retorted “Sell the berries you have, they are the only berries you can sell” - so always making the most of the possibilities given to you, has been his guiding mantra through his business life.
He is well known for his annual winter conference for thousands of Nordic Choice employees usually held in Sweden. In addition to a big party that has previously included live camels, celebrities, and especially composed music and stage acts, Stordalen gives his employees a motivational speech that, in the media, has been likened to a religious revival.
in the fight to free their expert Alexander Nikitin
, charged with treason
through espionage
for his contributions to a Bellona report on nuclear safety
within the Russian Northern Fleet. He has also participated in personal activism; in 2002 he broke in to the UK nuclear
treatment plant Sellafield
and chained himself to the bridge of the plant for nine hours to protest the discharging of the radioactive element technetium-99
to the sea. In 2007 he was charged with trespassing after entering a restricted area at Malmøyakalven to protest the dumping of toxic mud in the Oslofjord
.
Together with his wife, Gunhild A. Stordalen he has founded the couple’s philanthropic organization, The Stordalen Foundation. The Stordalen Foundation focuses primarily on climate change:
. The NOK 35 million (approx. USD 5 million) wedding was held in Morocco
on June 12, 2010, making it Scandinavia
’s most expensive wedding, outspending the Crown Princess of Sweden
. The lavish treatment of the guests included chartering an airplane and renting all the rooms of La Mamounia, one of the world’s finest luxury hotels. The ceremony was officiated by Sir Bob Geldof in front of 240 of Norway’s most prominent celebrities, from finance and the arts. The wedding received press attention normally reserved for royal weddings; Norway’s largest news website, VG Nett, had a protocol for the public to leave their greetings..
Following the Utøya shooting, on 22 July 2011, Stordalen donated NOK 5 million to the Norwegian Workers' Youth League
to rebuild the summer camp.
Stordalen has also been a public sports figure. At the age of 24 he completed an Ironman
race. He has later fielded teams in the company class of the road relay Holmenkollstafetten.
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
, hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
"tycoon
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
", property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
developer
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
and environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
. He has an estimated personal net worth
Net worth
In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...
of NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
7-11 billion
1000000000 (number)
1,000,000,000 is the natural number following 999,999,999 and preceding 1,000,000,001.In scientific notation, it is written as 109....
(NOK 8.7 bn according to Kapital – Norwegian financial monthly) stemming from investments in hotels, shopping centers and properties. Stordalen is a self-made business man. Through his company Nordic Choice Hotels, Stordalen owns in excess of 170 hotels and employs more than 9200 people.
Early life and Education
Stordalen was born in Porsgrunn in TelemarkTelemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
, Norway to grocer
Grocer
A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...
Knut Anker Stordalen (1933–94) and Kari Stordalen. At the age of ten he began working in his father’s grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
and at the age of twelve he began selling strawberries at the local market. He already then displayed his acumen for business, being named “Norway’s top strawberry seller” in the local paper, Porsgrunns Dagblad
Porsgrunns Dagblad
Porsgrunns Dagblad is a Norwegian newspaper, published in Porsgrunn in Telemark county.Porsgrunds Dagblad was started on 1 December 1914, and later modernized its name. The first editor Daniel H. Grini was an experienced press worker, and came from Varden in the neighboring city. He made Porsgrunds...
, in 1974, beating out his competition of 50-60 year old market ladies. Following high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
he attended Kjøpmannsinstituttet for one year, he then managed his father's store for a short time before going off to the Norwegian School of Marketing.
Shopping centers
At 24 he took over what was, at the time, the largest shopping center in Norway, City SydCity Syd
City Syd is one of the largest shopping centres in Norway, and the largest in Midt-Norge, with a turnover of NOK 1.7 billion in 2004. It lies in Tiller, about 10 km south of the center of Trondheim. City Syd opened in 1987 and was remodeled and expanded in 2000. It is now 38,000 m² and...
, in Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
as the country’s youngest shopping center manager. This coincided with his finals at the Norwegian School of Marketing so rumor has it that he had his secretary compile and type his final paper. After posting record profits at City Syd he became property director in Atle Brynestad's company Made in. As property director Stordalen was the architect behind the conversion of the former market area in downtown Trondheim and the re-launch of Liertoppen shopping centre outside Oslo. He was also put in charge of the Bik Bok brand
Following a number of transactions within the Brynestad system Stordalen, at the age of 29, found himself an employee of Realkreditt
DNB
DNB is short for:* De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank* Den norske Bank, a Norwegian bank * Departure from nucleate boiling in boiling heat transfer* Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, the German national library...
’s (later DnB) property development company. Together with a group of investors Stordalen bought the historical department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
Steen & Strøm
Steen & Strøm
Steen & Strøm is a Scandinavian retail and real estate company that owns and operates 52 shopping centres in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In 2006 the shopping centers had 3,300 lessees with total revenue of about NOK 40 billion.-History:...
in downtown Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. The group recouped their investment of NOK 20 million in the first five days of the reopening. The purchase of Steen & Strøm signaled the start of a wave of acquisitions, and in the span of three years the newly formed company, Steen & Strøm Invest, became the country’s largest holder of commercial real estate. The expansion
Expansion
- Mathematics :*Expansion *Polynomial expansion*Taylor expansion*expansion of a graph*The converse of a reduct, in model theory or universal algebra- Other uses :*Expansion card, in computer hardware*Expansion pack, in gaming...
lasted until 1996 when Stordalen had a falling out with the largest shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
, Stein Erik Hagen
Stein Erik Hagen
Stein Erik Hagen is a Norwegian businessman. He is Chairman of the Board of Orkla, where he is a large owner, and holds large ownerships of Steen & Strøm, Jernia and Komplett through his family company Canica...
, and was asked to leave his position as CEO.
Hotels
After leaving Steen & Strøm Invest, Stordalen struck out on his own teaming up with investor Christen SveaasChristen Sveaas
Christen Sveaas is a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Oslo, and has a degree from the University of St. Gallen in 1981. His paternal great-grandfather Anders Sveaas , who founded the company Kistefos Træsliberi in 1889. The company was sold by the family to Viul Tresliperi in 1983, against...
. In October 1996 the duo bought 68 percent of the shares in the Scandinavian
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
operations of Choice Hotels
Choice Hotels
Choice Hotels International is a hospitality holding corporation which is affiliated with several hotel brands and is based in Silver Spring, Maryland...
for NOK 100 million. At the time the chain consisted of 8 hotels across Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. Following the acquisition Stordalen started his expansion, following the same model as in Steen & Strøm Invest, buying Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
hotel chain Home as well as Norwegian hotel company InterNor, and taking Choice Hotels Scandinavia public. During a three-year period Choice Hotels Scandinavia bought, on average, a new hotel every other week and added 50 people to the payroll
Payroll
In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons...
every 10 days. In December 1997 Sveaas sold his 37 percent share of the now 77 hotels. In 1999 Christian Ringnes and his company Eiendomsspar acquired a 35 percent share in Choice Hotels Scandinavia. After a short power struggle, Ringnes folded and Stordalen cemented his control over the company. The same year Stordalen also saw the acquisition
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
of several Swedish and Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
hotels, including the Danish hotel company Nordisk Hotel Group, Stenungsbaden Yacht Club and Stockholm Globe
Stockholm Globe Arena
The Ericsson Globe is the national indoor arena of Sweden, located in the Johanneshov district of Stockholm . The Ericsson Globe is currently the largest hemispherical building in the world and took two and a half years to build...
Hotel. At the turn of the millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
, at age 37, Stordalen became a billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
(in Norwegian krone
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
).
From public to private company
In 2000 Stordalen formed the company Home Invest, consisting of the properties previously owned by Choice Hotels Scandinavia. The company went public, but was delisted in 2001. In 2003 Choice Hotels Scandinavia bought shares in Swedish property owner and developer Capona. In 2004 Stordalen’s Home Invest sold 19 hotel properties to Capona with settlement in shares giving him a majorityMajority
A majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...
interest. In 2006 Capona changed name to Home Properties. In 2005 Home Invest bought the remaining shares in Choice Hotels Scandinavia and delisted the company. In 2006 Home Properties spins off Home Capital as an investment company
Investment company
An investment company is a company whose main business is holding securities of other companies purely for investment purposes. The investment company invests money on behalf of its shareholders who in turn share in the profits and losses....
and lists it on the First North Stock Exchange in Stockholm
Stockholm Stock Exchange
The Stockholm Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1863 it is the primary securities exchange of the Nordic Countries....
. In 2007 Stordalen’s Home Invest acquires all the shares in Home Capital and delists the company. In 2009 Stordalen does the same with Home Properties. Stordalen now privately controlled all the building blocks needed to complete his current business structure. (see investments)
Investments
Petter Stordalen’s holding company, Home Invest, invests through four separate entities:- Nordic Choice Hotels: Scandinavia’s largest hotel chain with more than 170 hotels in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Baltics. The company had more than 9200 employees and turnover of NOK 5.1 billion in 2010
- Home Properties: Owns 26 properties including 19 hotels and two projects in Sweden in addition to 4 hotels and one office building on Norway.
- Home Capital: invests in stocks, bonds and derivatives.
- PASAB: Joint venture with Norwegian property developers Anders and Arthur BuchardtArthur BuchardtArthur Buchardt, born 15th of June 1948, is a Norwegian investor who mainly invests in spectacular hotel projects. He has been married with Wenche Myhre.-External links:* *...
, developing properties in Norway and Sweden.
Business philosophy
Stordalen’s business philosophy is based on 5 pillarsPrinciple
A principle is a law or rule that has to be, or usually is to be followed, or can be desirably followed, or is an inevitable consequence of something, such as the laws observed in nature or the way that a system is constructed...
- A corporate culture distinguished by energy, guts and enthusiasm
- Social responsibilitySocial responsibilitySocial responsibility is an ethical ideology or theory that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act to benefit society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual or organization has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the...
- Consumer power
- CapitalismCapitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
- Difference
The foundation for his business philosophy, coined The strawberry philosophy, stems from a deeply formative memory selling strawberries for his dad during his childhood summers. When complaining to his dad about the quality of the berries his dad retorted “Sell the berries you have, they are the only berries you can sell” - so always making the most of the possibilities given to you, has been his guiding mantra through his business life.
He is well known for his annual winter conference for thousands of Nordic Choice employees usually held in Sweden. In addition to a big party that has previously included live camels, celebrities, and especially composed music and stage acts, Stordalen gives his employees a motivational speech that, in the media, has been likened to a religious revival.
Awards
- Scandinavian Businessman of the Year 2004
- Grand Travel Awards for Best Scandinavian Hotel Chain and Best Work Place 2007 and 2008
- European Hotel Design Award 2008 for Stenungsbaden Yacht Club
- Sweden's most trusted brand 2008 from Reader's Digest - European Trusted Brands for Selma SPA
- Customer Excellence Award 2008 from Microsoft Business Solutions for Choice
- Ernst & YoungErnst & YoungErnst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010
Environmentalism
Petter A. Stordalen first made his mark as an environmentalist in Norway supporting Norwegian NGO BellonaBellona
-Places:United States of America*Bellona Foundry and adjacent Bellona Arsenal, 19th century United States Army and Confederate munitions factory and depot in VirginiaItaly*Bellona, Campania, a comune in the Province of CasertaSolomon Islands...
in the fight to free their expert Alexander Nikitin
Alexander Nikitin
Aleksander Nikitin, a Russian former submarine officer and nuclear safety inspector turned environmentalist, started to co-operate with Norwegian environmental Bellona Foundation in 1994. He was arrested in February 1996 by Russian FSB and charged with treason through espionage for his...
, charged with treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
through espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
for his contributions to a Bellona report on nuclear safety
Nuclear safety
Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power,...
within the Russian Northern Fleet. He has also participated in personal activism; in 2002 he broke in to the UK nuclear
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
treatment plant Sellafield
Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...
and chained himself to the bridge of the plant for nine hours to protest the discharging of the radioactive element technetium-99
Technetium-99
Technetium-99 is an isotope of technetium which decays with a half-life of 211,000 years to stable ruthenium-99, emitting soft beta rays, but no gamma rays....
to the sea. In 2007 he was charged with trespassing after entering a restricted area at Malmøyakalven to protest the dumping of toxic mud in the Oslofjord
Oslofjord
The Oslofjord is a bay in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north....
.
Together with his wife, Gunhild A. Stordalen he has founded the couple’s philanthropic organization, The Stordalen Foundation. The Stordalen Foundation focuses primarily on climate change:
- Rainforest Foundation Fund: Through the collaboration between Nordic Choice and Rainforest Foundation Norway 51 300 hectares of rainforest were conserved in 2010
- Technological development: The Stordalen foundation supports the non-profit environmental organization Zero.
- Renewable energyRenewable energyRenewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
: In 2009 Petter Stordalen bought 67 % of the shares in ECOHZ; an independent provider of Renewable energy with Guarantees of Origin. Today ECOHZ is the market leader, with an expected growth of 10 % in 2012. - International Climate Agreements: The foundation supports the European Climate FoundationEuropean Climate FoundationThe European Climate Foundation is an international organisation that aims to promote climate and energy policies that greatly reduce Europe's greenhouse gas emissions and helps Europe play an even stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change.The European Climate Foundation...
(ECF) and his wife Gunhild A. Stordalen serves on the organization’s supervisory committee. - Consumer behavior: In June 2011 the couple founded GreeNudge. The purpose of the organization is to support and advance research on how climate initiatives, behaviorism, and communication interact.The goal of the foundation is to give decision makers the knowledge they need in order to implement effective climate policies.
Personal life
Petter Stordalen’s romance with his wife Gunhild has been one of Norway’s most publicized relationships since it became public in 2006. On New Years Eve 2008 Petter Stordalen proposed on top of Aspen MountainAspen Mountain
Aspen Mountain may refer to*Aspen Mountain - a mountain in Colorado, USA*Aspen Mountain - a ski resort on the mountain of the same name outside Aspen, Colorado*Aspen Mountain - a mountain in North Carolina, USA...
. The NOK 35 million (approx. USD 5 million) wedding was held in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
on June 12, 2010, making it Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
’s most expensive wedding, outspending the Crown Princess of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The lavish treatment of the guests included chartering an airplane and renting all the rooms of La Mamounia, one of the world’s finest luxury hotels. The ceremony was officiated by Sir Bob Geldof in front of 240 of Norway’s most prominent celebrities, from finance and the arts. The wedding received press attention normally reserved for royal weddings; Norway’s largest news website, VG Nett, had a protocol for the public to leave their greetings..
Following the Utøya shooting, on 22 July 2011, Stordalen donated NOK 5 million to the Norwegian Workers' Youth League
Workers' Youth League (Norway)
The Workers' Youth League is Norways biggest political youth organization, and is affiliated with the Norwegian Labour Party.AUF took its current form in April 1927, following the merger of Left Communist Youth League and Socialist Youth League of Norway corresponding with the merger of its...
to rebuild the summer camp.
Stordalen has also been a public sports figure. At the age of 24 he completed an Ironman
Ironman Triathlon
An Ironman Triathlon is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation consisting of a swim, a bike and a marathon run, raced in that order and without a break...
race. He has later fielded teams in the company class of the road relay Holmenkollstafetten.