Geir Pollestad

Geir Pollestad (born 13 August 1978) is a Norwegian solicitor and politician for the Centre Party. He is currently serving as the minister of agriculture and food since 2023, and has been a member of parliament for Rogaland since 2013.

Early life and education

Pollestad was born in Høyland in Hå, to Jone Pollestad and Marit Erga, both self-employed workers with a family company. He has one brother.

Pollestad took lower secondary education in Nærbø and upper secondary education in Bryne, finishing in 1997. After one year at Stavanger University College he enrolled in law studies at the University of Bergen, graduating with the cand.jur. degree in 2006. During his last year of studying he was a board member of the Student Welfare Organisation in Bergen. After graduation, he worked one year as a junior solicitor in the law firm ''Projure Advokatfirma''.

Personal life

Pollestad is married to Lene Pollestad (née Mo), with whom he has three children: two sons and one daughter.

Political career

Early career

Pollestad was the political deputy leader of the Centre Youth from 2001 to 2003, and vice president of from 2003 to 2009.

Parliament

He served as a deputy representative to the Storting from Rogaland from 2001 to 2005, then from Hordaland from 2005 to 2009 and again from Rogaland from 2009 to 2013.

He resigned as state secretary in October 2013, as he won a regular seat in Parliament in the 2013 general election. He has won re-election since. In parliament, he was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment from 2013 to 2014, when he transferred to the Standing Committee on Business and Industry, where he also became leader until 2021.

Despite media reports stating that Pollestad was a relevant candidate for minister of agriculture or minister of trade and industry in the new government following the 2021 election, Pollestad was eventually not chosen to become a minister. Instead, he was elected the party's deputy parliamentary leader.

After Sigbjørn Gjelsvik was appointed minister of local government, Pollestad became his successor as the party's financial spokesperson on 27 April 2022.

On 31 January 2023, he became acting chair of the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs during Eigil Knutsen's leave.

Stoltenberg's cabinet

In 2007, during the reign of Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet, Pollestad was appointed political advisor in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. In late 2007 he changed to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. In 2008, he was promoted to State Secretary in the same ministry. He served until October 2009, when he returned to Parliament, where he was a regular representative while Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa served in cabinet (until June 2012). In September 2012 he returned as State Secretary, this time in the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Minister of Agriculture and Food

Pollestad was appointed minister of agriculture and food on 4 August 2023 when Sandra Borch was appointed minister of research and higher education following Ola Borten Moe's resignation.

Shortly after assuming office, Pollestad and finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum announced that the government would re-establish emergency storage facilities for grain, marking the first time in over 20 years the country would be doing so.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollestad, Geir
1978 births
Living people
People from Hå
University of Bergen alumni
Rogaland politicians
Politicians from Bergen
Centre Party (Norway) politicians
Members of the Storting
Norwegian state secretaries
21st-century Norwegian politicians