Bjarne Kveim Lie to join the Fritt Ord Foundation Board

May 31 2023

Growth investor Bjarne Kveim Lie will join the Board of the Fritt Ord Foundation as of 14 June 2023, succeeding Christian Bjelland.

Lie graduated with an MA in History from the University of Oslo/European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. Lie is currently managing partner and chief investment officer at Verdane Advisors (www.verdane.com), which he co-founded some 20 years ago. Verdane invests between five and ten billion NOK in unlisted growth enterprises each year. Ten per cent of Verdane is owned by a foundation focused on sustainability globally and diversity locally.

Bjarne Kveim Lie is engaged in activities that extend across multiple industrial sectors and far beyond the borders of Norway. He has extensive experience of micro-finance in developing countries, and is currently a member of the European Council of The Nature Conservancy, a global environmental organisation. He has maintained his ties to the humanities by serving a total of 12 years as an independent director at the department and faculty levels at the University of Oslo.

Following Lie’s appointment, the Fritt Ord Foundation’s Board will consist of Grete Brochmann (chair), Bård Vegar Solhjell (deputy chair), Bjarne Kveim Lie, Frank Rossavik, Sigrun Slapgard and Sylo Taraku. Knut Olav Åmås is executive director of the Fritt Ord Foundation. The Fritt Ord Foundation is a private non-profit foundation that is intended to protect and promote freedom of expression, public debate, art and culture.

News

Eirin Larsen and Hadia Tajik join the Fritt Ord Board

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Eirin Larsen (36) and Hadia Tajik (42) bring valuable experience from journalism, technology, politics and jurisprudence to the Fritt Ord Board.

Making the film «Farouk» – on the geologist that secured Norway its oil

July 1 2025

Geologist Farouk Al-Kasim joined the the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in 1968, shaping Norwegian petroleum resource management for decades afterwards. Now, documentary film director Halkawt Mustafa and producer Janne Hjeltnes are making a film about Al-Kasim’s life and reflections.
“Farouk tells me something in this film that he has not talked about before, because he has always told the version he feels Norway wanted to hear,” recounts Mustafa, who has Iraqi roots himself.

Read the interview with the director and see the list of grants awarded by Fritt Ord in June 2025.

Bård Vegar Solhjell new chair of the Fritt Ord Board

July 1 2025

Bård Vegar Solhjell (53) has taken over as the new chair of the Fritt Ord Foundation Board.

Cultural newspaper TBATBA.no and new journalism grants – June 2025

June 19 2025

– Cultural journalism is under pressure. Part of the problem is media outlets failing to cover culture in formats and ways that appeal to people under 30, says Ida Madsen Hestman, editor, freelance critic, and founder of TBATBA.no. Last year, she started the kind of publication she herself would want to read.

The magazine TBA is among those awarded funding in June 2025. See the full list of grants in Norsk Journalistikk.