John Gordon Bernander (born 22 September 1957) is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party and former

director-general A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

of the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

(NRK) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise.

Early life and career

He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

. He was educated at the Norwegian Naval Academy in Bergen from 1976 to 1977 and graduated from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

with the cand.jur. degree in 1982. After being a junior solicitor in Kristiansand, he was a corporate lawyer in Sørlandsbanken from 1986 to 1988 and in Johan G. Olsen Industrier from 1988 to 1989.

Politics

He was a member of

city council from 1979 to 1985 and 1987 to 1989, serving the first period in the executive committee. Having chaired Kristiansand Young Conservatives from 1974 to 1975, he chaired the Vest-Agder Conservative Party chapter from 1988 to 1989. He got his first national appointment when serving as a personal secretary (today known as political advisor) in the Ministry of Industry from 1985 to 1986. In 1989 he was elected to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( ; ) 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 based on party-list proportional represe ...

from

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total popul ...

, but he did not stand for re-election in 1993. From March to November 1990 he was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade. During this period his seat in Parliament was filled by Kirsten Huser Leschbrandt. Bernander was a member of the Conservative Party central board from 1988 to 1997, and from 1991 to 1994 Bernander was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party. He declined to stand for leadership when leader Kaci Kullmann Five resigned in 1994. His last major position within the Conservative Party was to lead the electoral committee in 1999. In 1996 he briefly sat on the Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee.

Media

From 15 June 2001 to 19 March 2007, Bernander was the director-general of the

(NRK), the Norwegian state-owned broadcasting company. He succeeded

Einar Førde Einar Førde (20 January 1943 – 26 September 2004) was a Norwegian journalist and politician of the Labour Party. He served as Minister of Education and Church Affairs from 1979 to 1981, and director-general of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corp ...

, and was succeeded by

Hans-Tore Bjerkaas Hans-Tore Bjerkaas (born 7 June 1951 in Tromsø) is a former Director-General of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). He began his broadcasting career in 1977, joining NRK's Troms region, where he was deputy editor. Later, he was appoin ...

. From 2006 to 2007 Bernander was vice president of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

, and in addition he was a board member of the

Association of Norwegian Editors The Association of Norwegian Editors (, NR) is a Norwegian interest group for editors and middle managers in the news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public. These inc ...

and the

Norwegian Press Association The Norwegian Press Association (; NP) is a Norwegian association for organizations and companies of the news media. History The Norwegian Press Association was established in 1910 for people with journalism as their main profession. its member ...

from 2003 to 2007. His time at NRK was marked by the expansion of digital distribution. NRK also launched

NRK Super NRK Super is a Norwegian TV (for children) and radio channel aimed at small children, run by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The TV channel is broadcast on the digital terrestrial network, officially from 06:30 to 19:30 (7:30pm), and was ...

toward the end of his tenure.

Business

From 1993 Bernander was the vice chief executive of

Assuranceforeningen Gard Gard is a mutual company and operates around the world within marine insurance. It is the largest Protection and indemnity insurance, Protection & Indemnity insurer of the 12 P&I Clubs that are members of the International Group of P&I Clubs. Ga ...

Arendal Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...

, continuing as chief executive officer from 1995 to 2001. From May 2007 Bernander is associated with The Mosvold Shipping Group in Kristiansand. From September 2009 to September 2012 he was the director-general of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise. He then moved on to the managing director position in Viking Heat Engines. Bernander was a board member of several companies including

Det Norske Veritas Det Norske Veritas (DNV), formerly DNV GL, is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. DNV provides services for several industries, including maritime, oil and gas, renewable energy, e ...

(1996–2002), and sat on the supervisory council of the Bank of Norway. He was also chairman of

Christianssands Bryggeri Christianssands Bryggeri (or CB, Kristiansand's Brewery) is a Norwegian brewery centred in Kristiansand. Together with Hansa Bryggeri in Bergen and Borg Bryggerier in Sarpsborg it makes up Hansa Borg Bryggerier AS, which is the second largest ...

from 1993 to 1999, when the brewery company was bought by Hansa Borg. He has later been chair of Talent Norge from 2015 to 2020 and board member of

Amedia Amedia AS is the second largest media company in Norway (the largest is Schibsted and the third largest is Polaris Media). The company is whole or partial owner of 50 local and regional newspaper with online newspapers and printing presses, an ...

from 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernander, John Gordon 1957 births Living people Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Vest-Agder politicians Norwegian state secretaries Politicians from Kristiansand Politicians from Brooklyn Royal Norwegian Naval Academy alumni University of Oslo alumni Norwegian lawyers NRK people Norwegian television executives Norwegian businesspeople Members of the Storting 1989–1993