Torbjorn Tornqvist

Torbjorn Tornqvist is the Swedish co-founder of Gunvor Group, one of the largest commodities conglomerates in the world. The massive oil trader benefits from an increasingly diverse presence with refineries, pipelines, terminals and mining operations in 35 countries, generating $91 billion in revenue in 2013; it is now the world's fourth largest commodities trading trailing only Vitol, Glencore and Trafigura. Tornqvist got his start at British Petroleum in 1977. After later stints at Scandinavian Trading Co. and Intermaritime Group Petrotrade, he formed Gunvor's predecessor company in Estonia in 1997 to export Russian crude oil. Three years later he founded Gunvor with Russian billionaire, Gennady Timchenko. Tornqvist grew up playing hockey and is an avid sailor; his Artemis Racing team reached the semi-finals of last year's America's Cup.