Norway CEOs, Analysts, Inmates Compete in ‘Dead Hard’ Ski Race

The Birkebeiner, Norway’s annual cross-country ski race, is attracting a record turnout, with chief executive officers and prison inmates lining up among tomorrow’s 16,150 participants. Pareto AS Chief Executive Officer Svein Stoele, former Aker Exploration ASA head Lars Thorrud, 48, and First Securities ASA’s 51-year-old Chief Strategist Peter Hermanrud, ranked second in Kapital magazine’s list of Norwegian analysts this year, are signed up for the 54-kilometer (34-mile) race. So are seven inmates from Hassel prison. Norway tied the U.S. for the third-most gold medals in this year’s Vancouver Olympics, and the Birkebeiner ties into Norwegians’ obsession with winter sports. The event, which has links back to the country’s 13th Century civil war, runs from Rena to Lillehammer in eastern Norway and rises from 280 meters (919 feet) to almost 1,000 meters above sea level. “It’s a dead-hard race, really tough,” said Martin Moelsaeter, chief investment officer of Ferncliff Asset Management AS who is competing in the Birkebeiner for the second time. “It’s an arena that has nothing to do with education, for instance, so everyone is on equal footing. It’s fun to see how you compare with others.”