Board & Jury Members

• Ms. Drange, Nina (chair)
• Mr. Nome, Petter (deputy chair)
• Ms. Bank, Helene
• Mr. Brende, Børge
• Ms. Dannevig, Siri
• Mr. Dannevig Gaarder, Nikolas
• Mr. Eriksen, Hylland, Thomas
• Mr. Gaarder, Jostein
• Ms. Hartmann, Elizabeth 
• Mr. Hessen, Dag O.
• Mr. Lahn, Bård
• Ms. Lindberg, Ylva
• Ms. Mørck, Sidsel  

Short biography

Ms. Nina Drange (b.1976) Chair, Nina is currently working on a doctorate degree at the University of Stavanger. She has earlier been the leader of Attac, Norway, and has also held leading positions at the Norwegian Council for Africa and Operation Dayswork.

Mr. Petter Nome (b. 1954) Deputy Chair, Freelance journalist for Norwegian newspapers, radio and television for 25 years. From 1984 to 2002, Nome has mainly been working for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) as news anchors and reporter, documentary producer and talk show host. From 2002 – 2005, He was the director of communication in Norwegian Refugee Council. Nome is now director of the Brewers Association. He has also been member of different boards within sports, charity, environment and culture.

Ms. Helene Bank (b. 1959) Helene Bank is a natural scientist. She is Vice President og Attac Norway, and former Vice president of Friends of the Earth Norway. Since 1997 she worked with the deaconial institution in Norway: Diakonhjemmet - Centre for Partnership in Development, responsible for building public understanding of marginalizing processes forced by economic globalization and the world trading system. She is a trustee and has been working board member of Southern and Eastern Trade and Information Negotiations Institute based in Zimbabwe, Uganda and Geneva. She has been actively involved in international activities on sustainable development and economic globalization. She has also been foreign policy advisor in the Norwegian Parliament. Currently, she works as Senior advisor on Trade, Globalization and the Environment in the labour union based "Campaign for the Welfare State.

Mr Børge Brende(b. 1965) is currently Secretary General for Red Cross Norway. From 2008 -2009 he was managing Director at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Brende has been Cabinet Minister of the Environment (2001-2004), and Minister of Trade and Industry(2004-05). As Minister of the Environment, he was Chairman of the UN Commission of Sustainable Development(2003 -04). Brende was Member of the Norwegian Parliament (1997-2007 and 2005 -2008), the last period as Deputy Chairman of The Standing Committee on Energy and Environment. Since 2005, Brende is International Vice-Chairman of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (an advisory board to the State Council), and he is a member of the Board at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Brende has experience as Chairperson for PD Burma - the International Network of Political Leaders Promoting Democracy in Burma - and as Member of the Board of Aid to Afghanistan. As background, Brende has a BA in Economy, Law and History from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology(1997).   

Mrs. Siri Dannevig (b. 1953) Siri Dannevig has since 1981 been teaching drama and theatre in Norwegian Folk High School (which is a free county college and boarding school). In this school she has directed several plays, classical and modern. In addition she has worked in the administration. She is today running a small private theatre in Oslo called Cafeteatret. She is the Director of the Sophie Prize Ceremony. Together with her husband, Jostein Gaarder, Siri Dannevig is the founder of the Sophie Foundation.

Mr. Nikolas Dannevig Gaarder (b. 1976) Nikolas D. Gaarder has been studying journalism, and is now studying history at the University of Oslo. In 2001 he was a conscientious objector at Norwegian People's Aid. He has also been working as a volunteer in Nature and Youth.

Mr. Thomas Hylland Eriksen (b. 1962) is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and the Free University of Amsterdam, where he has a Special Chair in the Anthropology of Human Security. His main research interests are cultural aspects of globalisation, identity politics and human security. He has written many books in English and Norwegian, including textbooks such as Small Places -- Large Issues, Ethnicity and Nationalism and A History of Anthropology; monographs such as Us and Them in Modern Societies and Common Denominators; general non-fiction like Charles Darwin (in Norwegian) and Tyranny of the Moment; essays, pamphlets and a novel.

Mr. Jostein Gaarder (b. 1952) Gaarder has for many years been a teacher in the Norwegian High School and Folk High School (which is a free county college and boarding school). He is today a world famous author. His novel "Sophie's world", a novel about the history of Western philosophy (1991) is translated into 50 different languages and sold in more than 20 million copies around the world. Also his other novels, children's books and textbooks are translated into many languages. Together with his wife, Siri Dannevig, Jostein Gaarder is the founder of the Sophie foundation.

Ms. Elizabeth Hartmann (born 1957) is Managing Director and partner at Siste Skrik, an advertising agency which specializes in creative commercial communication. She has an MBA from BI – Norwegian School of Management and more than 30 years of experience from different positions and companies in public
relations and advertising. She has been a chairman in different marketing organisations as The Marketing Association of Oslo, Creative Forum and Norwegian Association of Advertising Agencies.

Mr. Dag Olav Hessen (b. 1956)  Professor in Biology, University of Oslo. Hessen is working with several aspects of ecology and evolutionary biology, and is currently heading a research group working with the regulation of carbon fluxes from the cellular level to ecosystems. He has been aboard member of the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association, The University Studies at Svalbard and The Centre for Development and the Environment, as well as the Norwegian Research Council. He has also interest in the link between philosophy, evolutionary biology and environmental aspects and has written popular books on darwinism, cultural and biological selfishness and chance and biological determinism.

Mr. Bård Lahn (b. 1983) works as an adviser on international climate policy for Friends of the Earth Norway and Rainforest Foundation Norway, and has several years of experience in working with the UN climate change negotiations. He was previously chair of Nature and Youth from 2006 to 2008, after having served as vice chair and board member in the organization since 2002. During this time he participated in the foundation of Young Friends of the Earth Europe, a network of European environmental youth groups. He has also held positions in the Norwegian member group of Via Campesina, and worked on international trade and WTO issues.

Ms Ylva Lindberg (b 1974) Founder and manager of SIGLA, a consultancy advising companies on global challenges and corporate responsibility. Ylva is also board chair of WWF-Norway and a board member of the eco tourism company Basecamp Explorer. She has previously led the corporate responsibility work of KLP Insurance, a large Norwegian pension fund, and worked with business development in Russia, both for Orkla and as a consultant with McKinsey&Company. Ylva has a Bachelor of Arts with honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University. Her primary interest is in how global challenges and responsibility affect business and what role the private sector can play in social and economic development.

Ms. Sidsel Mørck (b. 1937) is an author of both fiction and non-fiction. She had her debut in 1967 and has published 35 books, many of them about nature and environment. She has held a series of lectures and written about 150 articles about environment and development, often about how economic activities conflict with environmental considerations. For this work she has received three environmental prizes, among others the Rachel Carson Prize. She has also received scholarship from the state from 1993 to 2004.