Eirik Øwre Thorshaug (born ) is Vice President, Head Public and Regulatory Affairs for

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, ...

Group in Europe, and is a former Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He started in politics in the industrial village of

Hommelvik Hommelvik is the administrative centre of the municipality of Malvik in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located at the end of the ''Hommelvika'', a bay off of the Trondheimsfjord. Hommelvik is about southwest of the village of Muruvi ...

as a member of the Workers' Youth League (AUF), where he became leader of the local chapter in 1992. He was the leader of AUF in the district of

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...

from 1996 to 1998 and was also a member of the national board the organization. His first elected public position was as a municipal councilman in

Malvik Malvik is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Trondheim Region. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Hommelvik. Other villages in Malvik include Muruvika, Smiskaret, Sneisen, Vikhammer, an ...

from 1995 to 1999. The following four years (1999-2003) he was an elected member of

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

. Thorshaug went through one-year

compulsory military service Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

from 1997 to 1998 in the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...

. From 1998 to 2001 he worked as the international secretary of the Workers' Youth League, and from 2001-2002 as a political advisor. At the AUFs Congress in 2002 Thorshaug was elected Vice president of the Workers' Youth League, and served on the national board of the Labour Party. In 2004 Thorshaug was hired as political adviser for the Labour Party fraction of the Standing Committee on Justice in the Norwegian

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

(Parliament). After the

2005 Norwegian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 11 and 12 September 2005. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1438 The result was a victory for the opposition centre-left Red-Green Coalition, which r ...

Thorshaug was appointed as political adviser to

Minister of Justice and the Police In Norway, the Minister of Justice and Public Security is the head of the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police and a member of Government of Norway. The current Justice Minister is Emilie Enger Mehl. Until 1 January 2012 the post w ...

Mr.

Knut Storberget Knut Storberget (born 6 October 1964) is a Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Labour Party. He is currently serving as the county governor of Innlandet since 2019. He previously served as Minister of Justice under Jens Stoltenberg from 200 ...

. He remained such until 2011, with the exception of spells in 2009 and 2011 when he was acting State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and the Police. He was appointed State Secretary in the new

Ministry of Justice and Public Security The Royal Ministry of Justice and Public Security ( no, Det kongelige justis- og beredskapsdepartement) is a Norwegian government ministry that oversees justice, the police, and domestic intelligence. The main purpose of the ministry is to provide ...

after the

2011 Norway attacks The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) ...

. In September 2012 he became State Secretary in the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

, which he remained until

Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet was the Government of Norway from 17 October 2005 to 16 October 2013. It was a coalition between the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party, known as the Red–Green Coalition. On 9 September ...

fell in October 2013. Thorshaug is a graduate of the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

(UiO) with a master's degree (MSc) in International relations focusing on terrorism and international security policy. He has studied Political Science at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

(NTNU), and International Relations with a focus on

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

(UQ), Australia. He is married to Mina Gerhardsen.

References

1976 births Living people People from Malvik University of Oslo alumni Sør-Trøndelag politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian state secretaries {{Norway-politician-1970s-stub