Stig Ingemar Traavik (born 19 December 1967 in

Haugesund Haugesund () is a municipality on the North Sea in Rogaland county, Norway. While the population is greater in the neighboring Karmøy municipality, the main commercial and economic centre of the Haugaland region in northern Rogaland and southern ...

) is a Norwegian civil servant and diplomat. He is currently a Special Envoy for the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. He has worked with

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

and

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

in Southeast Asia.

Athletics

He is six times national champion and competed in

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona.

Civil service

He joined the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

in 1994. He was assigned to the Norwegian Embassy in

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, ...

from 1997 to 2000. In 1998 he was kidnapped by rebels during a mission to Liberia, but managed to escape. From 2000 to 2002 he served in the Norwegian mission in Geneva. From 2002 to 2003 he was the Deputy Head of the Norwegian Embassy in Afghanistan. From 2003 to 2004 he was an adviser to the

Afghan Government The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

to lift sanctions from the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

, and prepare Afghanistan's participation in the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. He pioneered sports for women in Afghanistan. He went on to lead the Norwegian Refugee Council's operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan until 2006. In 2007 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Minister of International Development. He was appointed as ambassador to Indonesia in 2012. In Indonesia he developed a close relationship with key Indonesian decision makers, including with then Governor and later president

Joko Widodo Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elite ...

. He was recalled in 2016 as a result of extra-marital affairs. He accepted criticism for not having declared a formal conflict of interest concerning a local NGO which was funded by the Norwegian embassy, although investigations proved that no funds had been misallocated, misused or approved without justification. Norwegian newspapers VG and Finansavisen were later reprimanded for their coverage of the controversy. After returning to Norway he worked as special adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2017. From 2019 he was working on international conservation and climate issues as a Special Envoy for the Norwegian Government's International Climate and Forest Initiative. In 2020 he was appointed as a director in the Norwegian Aid Directorate - Norad.

Personal life

Stig Traavik is divorced and has four children.

References

External links

* * * * * 1967 births Living people People from Haugesund Norwegian male judoka Norwegian civil servants Ambassadors of Norway to Indonesia Olympic judoka of Norway Judoka at the 1992 Summer Olympics {{Norway-diplomat-stub