Jonas Gahr Støre

Born in Oslo, Jonas Gahr Støre is the son of ship broker Ulf Jonas Støre (1925-2017) and librarian Unni Gahr (1931-).[2] He attended Berg School in Oslo, then underwent naval officer training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. He later studied political science for five years at Sciences Po in Paris.[2]

Støre started his professional career as a teaching fellow in the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School in 1986. This was followed by a position as a researcher at the Norwegian School of Management from 1986 to 1989.

He was previously affiliated with the Conservative Party (Bokmål: Høyre; Nynorsk: Høgre) having applied for a position as political advisor on foreign affairs for Høyre.[3] He was offered the job but subsequently turned it down.[3] In 1989, Støre became special adviser in the prime minister's office of Gro Harlem Brundtland.[3] He formally became a member of the Labour Party in 1995.

He later became an ambassador in the Norwegian Delegation to the United Nations Office at Geneva. His first major international position was as executive director (Chief of Staff) in the World Health Organization under the leadership of Gro Harlem Brundtland.

He was executive chairman of the think tank ECON Analyse from 2002 to 2003 and secretary general of the Norwegian Red Cross from 2003 to 2005.

On 14 January 2008, a suicide bomber struck the Serena Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Støre was staying. He was then the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway.[7] Støre was unhurt in the incident, which killed six people including Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen.[8] United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated that Støre was the target of the attack,[9] but this claim was rejected by a Taliban spokesperson.[10] Støre canceled the rest of his visit to Afghanistan the day after the attack.[11]

It created a controversy when Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, confirmed to Norwegian media in 2011 that he had been having direct telephone conversations with Støre during his time as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organisation by both the EU and the United States. Støre first denied the allegations, then asked to re-do his interview in order to change his response to the allegations.[12][13][14][15][16]

Støre received criticism in 2017 when it was revealed that workers in a building company hired to on do work on his holiday home, had not paid taxes nor VAT.[17][18][19][20]

Støre was criticized by Geir Lundestad, Nobel Prize Committee Secretary, in a 2015 BBC interview for trying to dissuade in 2010 the Nobel panel from awarding the prize to a Chinese dissident, for fear it would strain Norway's relationship with Beijing. The Nobel committee ignored the warnings and honored Liu Xiaobo.[21]

• International Crisis Group, member of the board of trustees[22]

Støre is married to the sociologist Marit Slagsvold, and they have three sons, who attended Oslo Waldorf School.[23] Støre is a professed Christian[24] and both he and his wife are noted as supporters of Waldorf education and active within the anthroposophic community in Oslo more broadly.[25]

Støre is a multi-millionaire, with a fortune of around NOK 60,000,000 (approx. US$7,100,000 in 2016)[26] He owns a large part of the family company Femstø. Most of the family fortune comes from the sale in 1977 of Norwegian company Jøtul which was run by his maternal grandfather Johannes Gahr.

• "Jonas Gahr Støre" (in Norwegian). Storting.
• Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Jonas Gahr Støre: In defense of dialogue TED-talk