Ingrid Schulerud

Ingrid Schulerud

Ingrid Schulerud in 2009.
Norwegian Ambassador to Belgium
Assumed office
17 April 2015
Personal details
Born (1959-07-08) 8 July 1959
Oslo, Norway
Spouse(s) Jens Stoltenberg (m.1987)
Children 2

Ingrid Schulerud (born 8 July 1959) is a Norwegian diplomat. She is the Deputy Director General for Central Europe and EEA-financing in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is married to the Secretary General of NATO, former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. On 17 April 2015, Schulerud was appointed by royal resolution as the new Norwegian ambassador to Belgium.[1]

Schulerud is the daughter of Mentz Schulerud, an author and radio personality well known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of their home city of Oslo. Her aunt—Mentz' sister—was the children’s book author Anne-Cath. Vestly.

Schulerud attended Oslo Cathedral School, where she met Jens when they were both 17. Here she defeated her future husband in the election for representative to the national students’ union, running for the Socialist Left Party.

After travels in Latin America, Schulerud wanted to work for developmental organisations, but was engaged by the Ministry of International Development to study the environmental impact of World Bank projects. This led her to break off her ongoing master's degree, and undergo the basic training for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which she finished in 1988. In 1990, while she was stationed at the Norwegian embassy in Budapest, her husband was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment, and this caused her return home to Norway. Subsequently she has held different positions in the Ministry, mostly with matters relating to the Baltic countries and Central Europe. Schulerud has also been active in the Norwegian Civil Service Union, and has attended the Norwegian National Defence College; an institution for education on military and strategic matters for both military personnel and civilians.

Being the spouse of the prime minister in two different periods (2000–2001 and 2005–2013) Schulerud has chosen a somewhat withdrawn position. During the first period she did not accompany her husband on any official state visits for over a year, until the two visited India in April 2001. All in all, however, she has chosen to stay out of the media's scrutiny primarily to shield her children. The couple has a son and a daughter. They used to share a house with Stoltenberg's sister (Camilla Stoltenberg) and her family in the Oslo neighbourhood of Nordberg. However, when Stoltenberg served as Prime Minister, they lived in the Prime Minister's official residence, close to the Royal Palace in Oslo.

References

  1. ↑ Karlsen, Kirsten (17 April 2015). "Ingrid Schulerud blir Belgia-ambassadør". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 17 April 2015.


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