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 Gro Harlem Brundtland
Prime Minister, Norway, 1981, 1986-89, and 1990-96
Gro Harlem Brundtland was Norway’s first and only female Prime Minister and is
an international leader in sustainable development and public health. Before
becoming Prime Minister, Brundtland worked as a physician in the Norwegian
Directorate of Health and in Oslo’s public health service.
She also served as
Minister for Environmental Affairs from 1974-1979. In 1998, Brundtland was
elected Director-General of the World Health Organization, a post which she held
until 2003. At the WHO, Brundtland established a Commission on
Macroeconomics and Health and spearheaded the movement, now worldwide, to
achieve the abolition of smoking.
She now serves as a United Nations Special
Envoy on Climate Change, and is a member of The Elders and the Club of
Madrid. Brundtland was recognized in 2003 by Scientific American as their Policy
Leader of the Year for coordinating a rapid worldwide response to stem
outbreaks of SARS, and in 2004,
The Financial Times listed Brundtland as the 4th
Most Influential European of the Last 25 Years, behind Pope John Paul II, Mikhail
Gorbachev, and Margaret Thatcher. Brundtland and her husband have four
children.
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