Gunhild Stordalen

Early life and education

The daughter of a doctor and a civil engineer, she was born in Haugesund and raised in the sparsely populated hamlet of Muggerud outside Kongsberg. According to an interview with Dagbladet in 2010 she grew up in an anti-materialistic and pacifist household and was involved with environmental issues from an early age.

Gunhild Stordalen graduated from Kongsberg secondary school in 1998. She enrolled at the medical faculty of the University of Oslo in 2000, and joined the medical research program. She received her M.D. (cand.med.) title in 2007. During her time at University she worked with sexual awareness information for youths (Medisinernes Seksualopplysning) as well as an expert panelist on NRKs radio program Juntafil, a show with 250 000 listeners that answers young Norwegians sometimes very explicit sexual questions. Stordalen also worked as a model during her time at University

In 2007 Gunhild Stordalen enrolled in the Ph.D-program at the Institute of Pathology Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet and in 2010 she defended her doctoral thesis Molecular studies on bone with focus on fracture healing in experimental osteoporosis in the field of pathology and orthopedics. (see bibliography).

Environmentalism

The Stordalen Foundation which she co-founded with Petter Stordalen focuses primarily on climate change and Gunhild Stordalen has written several op-eds on the subject.

The Stordalen foundation focuses on 4 separate areas:

Stordalen is an Earth Hour ambassador for Norway.

Animal Welfare

Stordalen is an advocate of animal rights and refused to do an interview with Elle until they changed their policy on their use of fur and has spoken out against the fur industry on several occasions, she has also contributed at catwalk shows for the Norwegian Animal Welfare Alliance.

Women's health

As the spokesperson of the Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organization (LHL), she campaign to raise awareness of heart conditions affecting women. She has also educated the public on numerous occasions about the subject of her thesis, osteoporosis.

EAT Stockholm Food Forum

EAT Stockholm Food Forum was initiated by Gunhild Stordalen and arranged by the Stordalen Foundation and the Stockholm Resilience Centre at the Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm in May 2014. The forum which ran for two days, dealt with the connection between food, health and sustainability. Hosting 400 participants from 28 nations, it was a combination of talks, panel debates and discussions between researchers, politicians and industry. The participants included Charles, Prince of Wales, who spoke via a link on the theme of 'The global food system: A sustainable future', former US President Bill Clinton, who gave the keynote speech, and Professor Hans Rosling. Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland and Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway took part in a discussion from a consumer perspective on food and health.

Marriage and family

Gunhild and Petter Stordalen’s romance has been one of Norway’s most publicized relationships since it became public in 2006. On New Year's Eve 2008 Petter Stordalen proposed on top of Aspen Mountain. The NOK 35 million (approx. USD 5 million) wedding was held in Morocco on June 12, 2010, making it Scandinavia’s most expensive wedding, outspending the Crown Princess of Sweden. The lavish treatment of the guests included chartering an airplane and renting all the rooms of La Mamounia, one of the world’s finest luxury hotels. The ceremony was officiated by Bob Geldof in front of 240 of Norway’s most prominent celebrities, from finance and the arts. The wedding received press attention normally reserved for royal weddings; Norway’s largest news website, VG Nett, had a protocol for the public to leave their greetings.

Illness

On 22 October 2014 Stordalen was diagnosed with systemic sclerosis and has since been undergoing treatment for the disease.

Recognition

In 2012 Stordalen was named the youngest woman on Kapital's annual list over the 100 most influential women of Norway