Everything we do, we strive to do better.

After a summer of fundraising and building the team, Viking celebrated the launch of our first public equity strategy on October 1, 1999, with $520 million of capital. There were 17 Vikings: three portfolio managers, five analysts, two traders, and seven operations and administrative professionals.

Viking hired our first summer intern as an analyst on our investment team. Today, we hire graduate school interns throughout the firm. Over a quarter of our investment team and three of our ten portfolio managers started as interns.

Viking appointed its first portfolio manager, aside from the founders of the firm. Our investment team has a flexible multi-portfolio structure that allows analysts to gain portfolio management responsibility based solely on demonstrated performance. Since inception, 41 Vikings have been promoted to portfolio manager.

Nine Vikings received the inaugural Sleipner Awards, given to Vikings who complete eight years of service. In Norse mythology, Sleipner was the eight-legged horse ridden by Odin, chief among gods, who traversed land, air, and water. To date, 117 Vikings have received Sleipner awards, which are presented annually.

The Viking Global Foundation launched with a mission of engaging employees in philanthropy and having a positive impact in the communities in which Vikings live and work. Since inception, we have primarily supported early childhood education and development programs. In addition, we offer volunteer events, educational opportunities, and a matching gifts program.

Viking conducted our first unscheduled failover test. With less than one hour’s notice, our technology team successfully moved all systems to our remote facility. The exercise provided us and our investors with confidence that Viking will remain up and running.

Viking launched our internally developed Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) system. Created by our software development team and managed alongside our Quantitative Trading Analysts, TCA provides data that measures our cost of trading and, more importantly, helps our traders become more efficient.

Viking launched our public-private hybrid strategy to provide investors with a differentiating evergreen structure. The strategy invests in liquid and illiquid securities based on their relative risk-adjusted return profiles.

Viking returned $8 billion of capital to our investors. Our guiding principle has been to manage the appropriate, rather than the maximum, amount of capital based on the team’s investment and operational capabilities. Within three years, we had grown capital back to the pre-return level.

Viking welcomed 183 current Vikings and 67 alumni to our 20th Anniversary celebration. We believe that “Once a Viking, always a Viking” and appreciate the contributions of all Vikings – past and present – to our success.