by Lady Michelle-Jennifer Santos, Chief Visionary Founder & Owner
August 1, 2013 (TSR) – The world’s richest man Bill Gates and his family are on vacation here in Norway. His family decided on Thursday to also briefly visit the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway, Haakon Magnus and Mette-Marit, who happen to be on their annual summer family vacation and had brunch in my turf, literally.
How many people can say that everyday?
The private plane to the richest man in the world arrived in Kjevik airport on Wednesday midday according to local media Fædrelandsvennen.
Indeed, it was Bill Gates’ private plane as it is registered with Challenger Administration LLC, a company which he owns.
Somewhat unimpressed and star-unstruck, the airport chief Thomas Langeland told the local media, “Kjevik has a visit from a big private plane today. But we often have these types of plane this summer.”
The next day, Bill and Melinda Gates with their children ‘landed’ on Norwegian southern soil and left on a boat near the Kjevik airport on Thursday. With them were the Crown Prince of Norway, Haakon Magnus while his wife, Mette-Marit with all the children were on a smaller boat.
According to the photographer in tow with them, there was a “good tone” between the families, and seemed that they had a nice time together.They are not exactly strangers and doing some photo op. The Crown Prince and Princess, also active in philantrophic activities, have met with the Gates before, in particular the World Economic Forum in Davos last year. Bill and Melinda also had audience with HRH King Harald and Queen Sonia in 2009. It was a sincere visit among friends.
VG reported that Gates, the Crown Prince with their respective families went to a local favorite gourmet restaurant Bølgen og Moi in Verftet (The ShipYard) located in the old port of Ny-Hellesund, in the middle of the famous skerries of Southern Norway in the Søgne municipality.
Bill Gates have been in Norway for several days already. They have already visited the Olympic bobsled in Lillehammer, the Viking museum and the Kontiki in Oslo.
Bill and Melinda Gates thanked their special tour of the Kontiki museum and in fact signed in their guestbook. Some museum staff said that they were quite surprise that Bill knew a lot about the Kontiki than they did.
They left Kjevik at around 14.00 (2:00 pm local time) and landed in Ålesund later in the afternoon. Ålesund is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway that was also established in1 January 1838. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre, and the center of the Ålesund Region. It is a sea port, adjacent to the Hjørund and Geiranger fjords, the latter being on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture. Ålesund is a partner in the Art nouveau network, a European network of co-operation created in 1999 for the study, safeguards and development of the Art nouveau.
The term “Little London” was often applied to the community during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany due to the Norwegian resistance work that took place here. Among other things, the city was central to the flights to Scotland and England.
Ålesund Municipality has a population of 45,033 as of 2013, while the greater Ålesund urban area has a population of 48,460 (this also includes most of neighboring Sula Municipality as well)
Earlier, the local media paper Sunnmørsposten vaguely wrote as hint that their little town is having an “exclusive family with three children on a weekend visit” which pretty much described the Gates children’s ages.
By Thursday afternoon, the Gates private plane landed on Vigra airport outside Ålesund and went straight to an expecting helicopter, which headed towards the Sunnmør alps, Sunnmørsposten reports.
The family luggage was delivered to Storfjord Hotel in the little fjord town called Glomset, according to Sunnmørsposten. The multi-billionaire is renting the entire hotel.
HOW BILL GATES BECAME THE NUMBER 1 RICHEST PERSON IN THE WORLD AGAIN
William Henry Gates, better known as Bill Gates, is a 21th century legend, business magnate, programmer and investor. He was born in Seattle, in a family of Mary Maxwell and William H. Gates. His ancestors were emigrants from Scotland, Ireland, Germany and England. Both of Bill’s parents were highly educated people: Mary was a member of the board of directors for the United Way and First Interstate BancSystem, while William was a respectable lawyer. Despite their professional achievements, Mary’s and William’s fortune never amounted to 1% of the current Bill Gates net worth. Although his father hoped that the boy would follow his footsteps and become a lawyer, Bill was quite explicit about his interests. His fascination with computers started at the age 13, when the administration of his school bought Teletype Model 33. Convinced that there’s nothing new the boy could learn from the math book, his teacher excused him from classes so Gates could concentrate on his interest. The first program he has written allowed a person to play various primitive games against the computer.
Today, he is best known as a co-founder, former chief executive officer and current chairmen of the world’s greatest PC software company, Microsoft. The company was founded in the mid-1970s by Gates and his colleague Paul Allen. Back than the two business partners planed to develop and sell the BASIC interpreters for Altair 8000. By the end of 1980s Microsoft has dominated the PC operating system market with such inventions as MC-DOS. During this period the success of the company has created 3 billionaires and 12 thousand millionaires- all of them started as Microsoft employees. Quite obviously, the founders of Microsoft are the ones who gained the most of the company’s financial success.
Bill Gates was declared a certified billionaire for the first time by Forbes in October of 1987, a few weeks before he turned 32 and about a year after the Microsoft IPO. At the time, he was the youngest self-made billionaire in the world with a net worth of $1.25 billion. A year earlier, just before Microsoft went public, Forbes estimated Gates’ net worth to be $350 million. Between 1986 and the mid 1990s, the personal computer industry exploded and Microsoft absolutely dominated. Gates was first declared the richest person in the world in 1994 when he surpassed a Japanese real estate billionaire named Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (who subsequently lost his entire fortune and went to jail amid a large accounting scandal).
Interestingly, Microsoft’s 1986 IPO would eventually turn at least four people into billionaires (including insiders Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer) and over 12,000 Microsoft employees into multi-millionaires. When the company went public, the initial share price was $21, it closed later that day at $27.75. Over the next 27 years MSFT would split nine times as the value of the company soared. When you adjust for splits, growth and inflation, the relative price of Microsoft shares on it’s IPO day was just nine cents. In other words, if you had bought just one share of MSFT at the IPO for $21, today you would have over $9750. If you bought $10,000 worth of shares, you would have over $3.5 million today.
When Microsoft’s stock price peaked in 1999 at $119 per share, Bill Gates saw his net worth top out at $136 billion (when adjusted for inflation to 2013). That was enough to make Gates the 12th richest person of all time. That was also enough to make him the fourth richest American of all time when you adjust for inflation, behind Cornelius Vanderbilt ($185 billion), Andrew Carnegie ($310 billion) and John D. Rockefeller ($340 billion).
By the time he married Melinda French, Bill Gates net worth has already amounted to tens of billions. Since their wedding in 1993 the couple has cooperated on a number of philanthropic projects, such as Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. They are currently raising three kids: Jennifer Katherine, Rory John and Phoebe Adele. The whole family is currently residing in a luxurious house overlooking Lake Washington. The value of their residence is estimated at $125 million.
Gates would hold onto the title without interruption from 1994 to 2007 when Carlos Slim first edged him out by a mere $300 million ($53.3 billion vs. $53 billion). Between 2007 and 2009 Gates and Carlos Slim traded the top spot frequently, but as Microsoft slipped and the Mexican tycoon’s company America Movil rose, their net worth gap grew wider. In 2008, as the world economy dipped into a deep recession, Gates saw his net worth decline to the point where he the third richest person in the world behind Carlos and Warren Buffett.
This is quite “a fall from grace”, knowing that for 13 year from 1995 to 2008 Bill has been named the wealthiest person on planet. Interestingly, Bill Gates net worth is just a reflection of his professional achievements, but during the last few years his position on the Forbes list was discussed more often than the developments on his company.
Today, Gates is back on top as of this summer 2013.
Microsoft is experiencing somewhat of a roaring comeback which has allowed Gates to regain the crown of the richest person in the world. Yesterday Microsoft’s share price hit a five year high thanks largely to excitement surrounding the next generation Xbox. Year to date, MSFT is up nearly 28% which has boosted Gates’ net worth from $62 billion one year ago to $72.7 billion today. Meanwhile, Carlos’ company America Movil has had a rough year. The telecom conglomerate’s share price has dropped 14% this year alone after Mexican congress began passing laws that may dismantle the tycoon’s monopoly. The 14% drop in America Movil’s share price has reduced Carlos’ net worth from $73 billion to $70 billion which is enough for Bill Gates to officially be the richest person in the world, once again!
A Little bit about My Norwegian Turf
This is not the usual TSR report we do with “celeb hunting”, so I’m going to now add my spesialty: Politics and everything else. Having Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, caters more or less to fellow business colleagues who like this type of news.
I also think it is interesting to write about because not many people have this type of experience. There are not many who have an understanding of what it’s like to be in the Viking nation of Norway as majority think of it as the home of the controversial Nobel Peace Prize. In a nutshell, there is not much celebrity worship here in the home of Henrik Ibsen, Edvard Grieg and Edvard Munch, so you won’t see many people doing absurd things. It’s a society of equality. So it is not a surprise that the Gates family, like many other well-known Americans, come here. They are treated just like any other normal person. In my case, I guess you can say I’m more proud that my childhood place is considered as one of the most beautiful places in the country.
Søgne is a coastal municipality since 1 January 1838, with a long stretch of coastline to the south. To the east, it borders the municipality of Kristiansand, to the north and north-east Marnardal and Songdalen, and to the west Mandal.
VIDEO: This is Trysfjord located in Soegne, Norway. (Credit: Reidar Olsen/thesantosrepublic.com)
Søgne (or Soegne) is also the home of Norway’s oldest human skeletal remains called “Søgne woman”, “Sol” or “Lady from the Sea“, which was found 5 minutes from my home in 1994. I just finished High School when it was discovered by a cottage owner who cleared the seafloor. He first thought it was a jar, but then it turned out to be the skull of a Stone Age woman. Upon closer examination by the archaeologists, it turned out to be the remains of at least three, but possibly as many as five individuals, including that mentioned which is a nearly complete skull without the lower jaw. They declared that they were probably all women. The particular Stone Age woman skull that is held by Norway as priceless artifact is dated 8,600 years old. I intend to write more about this in depth because I have “met” the skull in July 12 this year for the first time but the key people I need to speak with are still on vacation, as July is the mandatory month for all Norwegians in the entire country to be on vacation. It is actually on exhibition now. If you want to see it, you may email us.
Yes, you read it. Mandatory. It’s the Vikings! We need to be in the ocean! Marine leisure activity is as much a part of life for many Norwegians as the car, motorbike and bicycle are for other nationalities. Hence, per capita boat-ownership is high, with roughly one in seven owning some sort of watercraft.
Ny-Hellesund is today a holiday paradise in the Søgne archipelago and in Norway. The lagoon between Helgøya and Kapelløya is surrounded by open areas with sandy beaches, which is what the southern Norwegian coastline is known for. Otherwise Helgøya best known for the German coastal fort from 1942-1945.
“Verftet” is surrounded by historic roots, some dating back to King Olaf II of Norway (Heilag-Olav), in the 11th century. The area between Kapelløya and Helgøya has been visited by several royal kings, which the golden monograms on the mountain testify.
Verftet in Ny-Hellesund is built on the grounds of the old Bentsen & Sons Yard where they built and maintained boats for 99 years until it was closed down in 2008. But the family business at the site continued through Hanne Bentsen, the daughter of the yard’s last owner, Jan Erik Bentsen.
The new buildings are designed in respect of the old yard, and the similarity is striking. The architect behind the shipyard is Tor Linge Tønnesen (Strek Arkitekter), and the design was done in close cooperation with the county conservator. The artist Per Fronth, well known for the Nobel Peace Prize diplomas, has decorated the apartments and buildings.
The only building that was left behind when the old buildings were demolished was the 50-sqm tank for solar oil. Under the leadership of Per Fronth, the tank was converted into an unique apartment – which is possible to rent.
Today, the guesthouse “Verftet i Ny-Hellesund” consists of 19 modern apartments, conference rooms for up to 40 people and the gourmet restaurant Bølgen & Moi. The restaurant at the shipyard in Ny Hellesund is the 9 restaurant in the series of “BØLGEN & MOI”. B&M is known and loved for their love for high quality cuisine.
Many artists can be linked to the archipelago of Ny-Hellesund. In 1800 the British painter John William Edy made drawings here. The painter Hans Gude (1825-1903) was here in 1872 and in 1885 Amaldus Nielsen (1838-1932) painted among others “Morning at the Ny Hellesund”, which today hangs in the National Gallery in Oslo.
The Villa History and Royal Vacation Home Controversy in Kristiansand
The Crown Prince’s family are renting a villa called Vogt’s Villa in Dvergsøya. His wife, Mette-Marit hails from the Kristiansand municipality, and a fellow High School alum. She was a single mother when they met in Kristiansand.
Kristiansand municipality is the 5th largest in Norway with a population of 90,476 as of 1 January 2013. It is affectionately called by the Norwegians as their summer capital. Both Kristiansand and Søgne municipalities are pretty close and one can consider that they are “municipal best friends” as they have been since I was a child. You can affectionately say Søgne is Kristiansand’s little brother.
The villa has attracted Norwegian celebrities and found inspiration there. In fact, Norway’s legendary pop group AHA’s Morten Harket, one of my favorite singer/songwriters even wrote an album after the Vogt villa’s name. Author Håvard Rem and singer Lene Marlin were also former renters.
Interestingly, the island has a dark and tragic history of crime, drowning and witch-burning.
Peder Lefsøn Duersøen was one of the first to be registered as resident in the island and had an occupation called “husmann” from 1647, a servant for those who own farms.
In 9 September 1670, his wife Maren was burned alive. After being arrested on 20 April 1670 in connection to a ship that was on its way to Jylland, Denmark, and one of the other women who was involved in the case accused her to be the reason for its sinking. The woman said that Maren and the other women flew through the air and down to the ship where they met the devil disguised as a priest. She said that was the very reason why Maren sank the ship that also drowned the two sons of Ådne Rabbersvig.
Maren denied at first, but eventually changed her confession after being tortured. Under the painful torment, she admitted the story to be true. As punishment, she was burned as a witch, as one of the last so-called witches in Norwegian history.
Fast forward to the 20th Century. Factory owners and friends Vogt and Jebsen bought the entire Dvergsøya. Both lived very wealthy in Kristiansand but needed each their “little” summer homes, of course, namely Vogt’s Villa and Jebsen’s Villa. Vogt’s Villa is in the north part of the island and today being used by the Crown Prince and Princess.
Jebsen’s Villa was the biggest of the two and grand. In 1922 Professor Johan Edvin Gustav Bruusgaard bought the place from Jebsen for mere 25.000 NOK kroner. The professor was the chief physician at Rikshospitalet (The National Hospital of Norway) and was the specialist on syphilis. Rikshospitalet is located in Oslo, Norway. From January 1, 2009, the hospital became part of Oslo University Hospital. It is a highly specialized university hospital with special assignments in research and the development of new methods of treatment.
In 1933 the island became a place of another tragic history. History says that Berntsen, Johnsen og Barth, three young petty thieves, broke into the house to steal its furniture and other valuables. To outsmart everyone, their little criminal minds decided to burn down the beautiful villa in order to hide their tracks. Their little plan would have been successful if the youngest of them Klaus Barth didn’t have a conscience attack. He wanted to get out of the “business” and didn’t want to do the job in the first place. The two older ones, Berntsen and Johnsen, decided to get rid of Barth by burning the cottage where he was sleeping located in Sumatra by Møvig in Vågsbygd, Kristiansand (close to where I went to school).
They didn’t succeed. Klaus survived with burns and became much more determined to get away from his partners. Eventually, the plan to kill Klaus succeeded: They clubbed him to death, drowned his head in a washtub and then they dumped him in the fjord. The guilty were caught later on.
Meanwhile, the professor never built the place again. He died a year later and the property was then sold. Since then, the forest took over and became the resident.
The Royal couple has a 5-year lease agreement with the Kristiansand municipality since 2010 where they have to pay a total of 850,000 NOK kroner (USD$ 142,853.56). There was a huge political and public squabble over the lease because the couple were supposed to pay over 200,000 NOK kr (USD$ 33,613) minimum per year because the villa on a 22 decare (5.44 acre) in a very popular island is very valuable.
When Kristiansand municipality bought Dvergsøya in 1946-47, the intention was to ensure that it will be accessible for everyone and not be privatised. So you can just imagine the uproar of the local people when the Municipal Council in Kristiansand passed a legislation in 24 April 2010 invoking a regulation taken from the Friluftsloven §16 (loosely translated, “The Countryside Act”) called “Sperring av særlig utsatt område” (Barring a particular vulnerable area), which the people and politicians saw as misuse of the law because it was for obvious reasons it was being used for a particular agenda and personal benefit.
The price is one thing, but the biggest controversial issue was that the private property area was extended to what Norwegians call “Access Rights” which is freedom to roam in the kingdom.
The freedom to roam, or everyman’s right is the general public’s right to access certain public or privately owned land for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the right to roam. Everyone in Norway enjoys the right of access to, and passage through, uncultivated land in the countryside. The right is an old consuetudinary law called the allemannsrett (lit. all men’s right), that was codified in 1957 with the implementation of the Outdoor Recreation Act.It is based on respect for the countryside, and all visitors are expected to show consideration for farmers and landowners, other users and the environment. In Norway the terms utmark and innmark divide areas where the right is valid and where it is invalid or restricted. The law specifies innmark thoroughly,and all areas not covered by this definition are defined as utmark, generally speaking uninhabited and uncultivated areas. Cultivated land may only be walked on when it is frozen and covered in snow.
In later years the right has come under pressure particularly around the Oslo Fjord and in popular areas of Southern Norway like where I am. These areas are popular sites for holiday homes and many owners of coastal land want to restrict public access to their property. As a general rule, building and partitioning of property is prohibited in a 100 meter zone closest to the sea, but local authorities in many areas have made liberal use of their ability to grant exemptions from this rule. Even though a land owner has been permitted to build closer to the shore he can not restrict people from walking along the shore. Fences and other barriers to prevent public access are not permitted (but yet sometimes erected, resulting in heavy fines).
Canoeing, kayaking, rowing and sailing in rivers, lakes, and ocean are allowed. Motorised boats are only permitted in salt water. All waters are open for swimming – with the exception for lakes that are drinking water supplies (see for instance Maridalsvannet).
Wild berry foraging is part of the right.
Hunting rights belong to the landowner, and thus hunting is not included in the right of free access. In freshwater areas such as rivers and lakes, the fishing rights belong to the landowner. Regardless of who owns the land, fresh water fishing activities may only be conducted with the permission of the landowner or by those in possession of a fishing licence. Different rules apply for children under the age of 16. Children under the age of 16 have the right to fish without a licence, a right codified in 1992. This right was tried and upheld in a ruling from the Norwegian Supreme Court in 2004.
In salt water areas there is free access to sports fishing using boats or from the shoreline. All fishing is subject to legislation to among other things protect biological diversity, and this legislation stipulates rules regarding the use of gear, seasons, bag or size limits and more.
With that understanding, you can just imagine the entire issue had strong reactions from all over the country, not only locally. But then again, the emphasis here is that this is the Royal couple, the future constitutional monarchs of the Kingdom of Norway.
The fact that the future queen is from here, compromises were made and they were accommodated by the people.
Thus, the Kristiansand Municipal Council voted on 21 April 2010 to extend the barred perimeter by 31 decare (7.66 acres) in total for the royal family’s security, regardless of what some of the public and politicians expressed.
The irrevocable regulation is for five years at a time, and naturally can be renewed pending on re-evaluation. It expires on 1 May 2015.
According to the leasing agreement, security cameras were installed in that part of the island and a guardhouse. The royal couple pays for all maintenance and expenses of the place. The agreement also gave the royal couple permit to build a 200 metre fence around the perimeter, but the couple told then that they will test the area first if that was necessary.
Another issue that people reacted to was the dispensation of building a new little boatdock that cost the taxpayers 100,000 NOK kroner (USD$ 16,835). The municipal representatives said that they were taking out the expense from the lease agreement, which was technically money for the municipality, on top of the already below asking price that the royal couple has been gifted with.
If it makes the anti-royalists happy, the beautiful old villa is actually rotten due to its old age. The roof and and the facade has to be changed.
The couple rents the villa from the municipality for ca. 14,000 NOK kroner (USD$ 2,357) per month, 170 000 NOK kroner (USD $ 28, 622) per year and they are the ones who will be paying for the renovations, which is around 100,000 NOK kroner (USD$ 16,835).
Who gained and who lost, all depends on how you look at it.
I personally think it is great they are down south, especially if they like being by the water like me. Besides, they are the future king and queen. It makes it quite personal when they are rooted here.
Southern Norway is the pearl of the kingdom and anyone who doesn’t appreciate it is missing out on one of the most idyllic and romantic places in Scandinavia.
