Thor Listau (3 June 1938 – 22 March 2014) was a

Norwegian 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 ...

military technician and politician for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. He was a three-term MP and served as Minister of Fisheries from 1981 to 1985. Later he served as director of Statkorn from 1991 to 1995.

Early life and career

He was born in

Svolvær Svolvær () is the administrative centre of Vågan Municipality in Nordland County, Norway. It is located on the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago, along the Vestfjorden. The town has a population (2018) of 4,720 which gives the ...

as a son of fish food producer Magnus Listau (1898–1976) and housewife Johanna Jakobsen (1904–1945). After attending the

military communications Military communications or military signals involve all aspects of communications, or conveyance of information, by armed forces. Military communications span from pre-history to the present. The earliest military communications were delivered b ...

school from 1954 to 1958, he was employed in the military as a radio mechanic. From 1961 he served 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 ...

Kirkenes Kirkenes (; ; Skolt Sami: ''Ǩeârkknjargg;'' fi, Kirkkoniemi; ; russian: Киркенес) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town ...

Political career

Here he chaired the local chapter of the Young Conservatives from 1965 to 1967, and the county chapter from 1967 to 1969. During those two years he was also a central board member of the Norwegian Young Conservatives. He was an elected member of

Sør-Varanger Sør-Varanger ( sme, Máttá-Várjjat, fkv, Etelä-Varenki, fi, Etelä-Varanki, russian: Сёр-Вара́нгер/Syor-Varánger) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town ...

school board from 1966 to 1971, and the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

from 1967 to 1975, the last four years in the executive committee. He also chaired the local sports club in

Hesseng Hesseng is a village in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The village lies about south of the town of Kirkenes. The village of Hesseng lies at the intersection of the European route E105 and European route E6 highw ...

, SK Vigør, for one year. He was elected to the

Parliament of Norway 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 ...

from

Finnmark Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024. On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

, and was re-elected in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

and

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

. In 1981, however, the Conservative Party fared to well as to form the

Willoch's First Cabinet Willoch's First Cabinet was a minority, Conservative Government of Norway. It succeeded Brundtland's First Cabinet (which was a Labour government), after the Conservative victory in the 1981 Storting election; and sat from 14 October 1981 to ...

. Listau was selected for the cabinet as Minister of Fisheries, serving until 1985 (i.e. also in

Willoch's Second Cabinet Willoch's Second Cabinet was a majority government, majority, Centre-right politics, centre-right government consisting of the Conservative Party of Norway, Conservative, Centre Party (Norway), Centre, Christian Democratic Party (Norway), Christia ...

). While he was a cabinet member, his seat in Parliament was filled by

Steinar Eriksen Steinar Eriksen (born 22 May 1939) is a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Conservative Party. He was a two-term MP. He was born in Kvænangen. After taking his realartium at ''Finnmark offentlige gymnas'' in 1958 he studied at BI f ...

. In 1986 he retired from electoral politics and was hired as an office manager in Statens Kornforretning. He also studied part-time and graduated from the

BI Norwegian Business School BI Norwegian Business School () is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total four campuses with the main one located in Oslo. The university has 845 employees consisting of an academic staff o ...

in business administration in 1988. However, he continued in positions in the Conservative Party. Having been a member of its party platform committee from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1985, he was a central board member from 1988 to 1990 and chaired the party's study league from 1988 to 1995.

Later career and life

From 1991 to 1995 he served as director of Statkorn. In 1995 Statkorn was altered into the fish food producer and acquaculture company

Cermaq Cermaq is a company which farms salmon and trout in Norway, Canada and Chile. In 2017 the farming business had sales of around USD 1,1 billion, and a total sales volume of 157,800 tonnes. Cermaq is a fully owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporatio ...

, where he served as organizational director until 2005. He also chaired the board for the first year, 1995 to 1996. Listau also chaired Statskraftverkene from 1985 to 1991 and was a board member of '' Sør-Varanger Avis'' and ''

Finnmarksposten ''Finnmarksposten'' is a local newspaper published in Honningsvåg, Norway. It was established in 1866. It has a circulation of 1235, of whom 726 are subscribers. ''Finnmarksposten'' is owned by ''Finnmark Dagblad'' since 1993, which in turn is ...

'' from 1974 to 1982, and the

Norwegian Guarantee Institute for Export Credits The Norwegian Export Credit Guarantee Agency( no, Garantiinstituttet for eksportkreditt, GIEK) is a public-sector enterprise that reports to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (MTIF). GIEK promotes Norwegian exports by issuing guarantees ...

from 1993 to 2004. He resided at

Østerås Østerås is a village in Akershus, Norway. Østerås (station) Østerås is a village in Akershus, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises t ...

in Bærum in his later life. He died in March 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Listau, Thor 1938 births 2014 deaths People from Vågan People from Sør-Varanger Finnmark politicians Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Government ministers of Norway Members of the Storting Directors of government agencies of Norway 20th-century Norwegian politicians