Børge Brende is president of the World Economic Forum (2017). Previously he was the Norwegian minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of Trade and Industry, and minister of Climate and the Environment. He served as deputy chairman of the Norwegian Conservative Party as well as MP. He was also vice-mayor in his hometown Trondheim. He was chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and secretary- general of the Norwegian Red Cross. He was board member of Statoil and the Norwegian School of Economics. He has been the Chair of Mesta, Norway’s largest contracting group in the area of road and highway maintenance. He is a member of the Advisory Council, Harvard International Negotiation Program, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), the Strategic Committee of Sciences Po, and is currently on the board of the Bilderberg Meetings.