Tor A Svelland has left as chief executive of Seatankers Management, the private group that looks after John Fredriksen's investments.
Svelland left the position on Monday, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
Fredriksen said Svelland was hired to restructure parts of the Seatankers group, which has since been completed.
'This job is now finished and I want to thank Svelland for a well-executed job," the shipping tycoon told Norwegian financial newspaper Finansavisen.
Fredriksen described the restructuring as important and necessary.
Finansavisen reported that both Svelland and Fredriksen have rejected that disagreements led to the departure.
Svelland will return to his job as chief executive of hedge fund Svelland Capital, which he set up in 2016. He will continue to sit on the board of several Fredriksen companies, including bulker owner Golden Ocean Group and tanker company Frontline.
TradeWinds understands Fredriksen has no immediate plans to replace Svelland.
Seatankers oversees all investments in the Fredriksen group, including shipping, offshore, real estate and seafood.
Revolving door
Svelland's departure once again draws attention to the ever-changing roster of names employed at Seatankers, and raises questions about the group's next steps.
Svelland was hired in September 2020 to replace Harald Thorstein, who departed from the top job in May last year.
In March this year, Marius Hermansen resigned as Seatankers' chief operating officer after 18 months in the role and seven years of working for Fredriksen companies.
Disagreements within the group have led to staff departures previously.
In September 2017, Orjan Svanevik was appointed as the company's chief operating officer but left the Fredriksen group after just five weeks following an internal disagreement about strategy.
Career to date
Before joining Seatankers, Svelland had 30 years of experience from the commodities, finance and shipping sectors, and was a board member for Golden Ocean and Frontline.
Svelland also spent two years as a desk manager at trading giant Trafigura in Switzerland.
He has also worked for Goldman Sachs in London and Pareto Securities and Carnegie in Oslo.
When he joined Seatankers, Svelland described Fredriksen as the greatest industrial entrepreneur that Norway has ever had.
Fund manager Vegard Soraunet was brought in last year to restructure Seatankers to help it invest outside shipping and oil and gas. Aeternum Capital, which is led by Soraunet, formally launched at the end of January.
TradeWinds approached both Seatankers and Svelland for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.
This story has been amended since publishing to reflect that Svelland and Fredriksen said that no disagreement led to the departuer.
