Arne Wam (born 14 April 1952) is a Norwegian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and civil servant, who has had several leading positions in the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

(NRK) and the

Norwegian State Railways Vygruppen, branded as Vy, is a government-owned railway company which operates most passenger train services and many bus services in Norway. The company is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport. Its sub-brands include Vy Buss coach se ...

(NSB).

Early and personal life

He was born in Drammen, and was educated at

Volda University College Volda University College ( no, Høgskulen i Volda or HVO) is one of the no-tuition state institutions in the system of higher education in Norway. It is located in the town of Volda, Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. History HVO was established ...

. He is married to Sissel Rønbeck.

Career

During the 1980s, Wam worked as a negotiator between the Blitz group and the

Oslo Municipality Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, resulting in the establishment of the Blitz House. During this period, Wam joined the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party ( nb, Arbeiderpartiet; nn, Arbeidarpartiet; A/Ap; se, Bargiidbellodat), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party ( no, Det norske Arbeiderparti, DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centr ...

and later became chair of Skøyen Labour Party. In 1986, Wam became anchor in ''Ungdommens Radioavis'' on NRK. Two years later, he led the Men's Role Committee, which criticized Norwegian women and equality policies. On 28 June 1989, Wam leaked a news story about the connection between the Labour Party and the Norwegian Police Security Service. In 1990, Wam became leader of NRK Østlandssendingen. Five years later, he became the advisor for NRK's director-general

Einar Førde Einar Førde (20 January 1943 – 26 September 2004) was a Norwegian journalist and politician of the Labour Party. He served as Minister of Education and Church Affairs from 1979 to 1981, and director-general of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corpo ...

. In 1996, he became director of NRK Aktivum, a limited company which operate an

online store Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

. Two years later, he quit that job in protest against lack of prioritizing on the concept, and received a

golden parachute A golden parachute is an agreement between a company and an employee (usually an upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated. These may include severance pay, cash bonuses, s ...

worth 500,000

Norwegian krone The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ''� ...

. In 1999, Wam was hired as director for regional trains in NSB, and a year later became acting CEO of NSB. He replaced Randi Flesland, who had served as acting CEO for a short time after

Osmund Ueland Osmund Ueland (born 27 September 1947) is a Norwegian civil servant and former CEO of Norges Statsbaner (NSB). An engineer by education, he worked for Aker from 1975 to 1990. From 1990 to 1994 he headed the Lillehammer Olympic Organising Committe ...

was fired. Wam stated that his inspiration for the company came from

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...

and

Norway Post Posten Norge () is the name of the Norwegian postal service. The company, owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications had a monopoly until 2016 on distribution of letters weighing less than 50g throughout the country. There ...

. Among his projects were removing 49 out of 300 employees at Lodalen without firing a single person; removing shopping trolleys from the trains and replacing them with vending machines; and welding the seats in older, bi-directional trains so the seats would no longer always face forward. In 2001, Wam was replaced by Einar Enger as CEO of NSB. In 2003 Wam became communications director for NSB.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wam, Arne 1952 births Living people People from Drammen Volda University College alumni Norwegian media executives NRK people Norwegian State Railways people