Thorvald Stoltenberg

Thorvald Stoltenberg ( born July 8, 1931 in Oslo) is a Norwegian lawyer, diplomat and politician of the Social Democratic Workers' Party.

In 1958 he joined the Foreign Service in Norway and was stationed among others in Yugoslavia. He was personal secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965, and in the 1970s he was State Secretary in several social democratic governments. Stoltenberg was from 1979 to 1981 Norwegian defense minister and foreign minister from 1987 to 1989 and again from 1990 to 1993 in 1990, he was also High Commissioner for Refugees United Nations.; earlier, he had acted as his country's ambassador to the United Nations since 1989. From 1996 to 1999 he was then Norwegian ambassador in Copenhagen. From 1999 to 2008 he led the Norwegian Red Cross as president. In 2007, Stoltenberg Willy Brandt Prize.

He was married to the late 2012 Karin Stoltenberg. The couple had three children, including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.