Norway’s top companies lack non-western leaders
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PA Consulting has examined the composition of executive teams in Norway’s largest companies and public sector organisations. The results reveal that only 0.22 percent of executives in the country’s largest private companies are Norwegians with a non-Western background.
The consultancy firm PA Consulting has conducted this survey since 2019, and the numbers have remained consistently low across all six years. In 2019, there were three Norwegians with a multicultural, non-Western background in the executive teams of Norway’s 50 largest companies, representing approximately 0.65 percent of the sample. By 2025, this figure had dropped to 0.22 percent.
This year’s survey once again confirms that there are far too few Norwegians with a non-Western background in Norwegian executive teams. We think it is remarkable that the numbers have not improved since we began the survey in 2019, especially as many companies have publicly stated that they intend to prioritise this,” says Ali Rana, who is responsible for the survey at PA Consulting.”
Henrik Inadomi, Executive Vice President for New Energies at Aker Solutions, is the only Norwegian with a non-Western background in the executive management of the 50 largest companies in this year’s survey. Among the 100 largest companies, there are five, including Inadomi: Sefin Adam and Jawad Asadi, who are Head of Sales and Head of Operations respectively at Elkjøp; Daniel Kjørberg Siraj, CEO of OBOS; and Maria Skovly, Director of B2B & Card Sales at Circle K Norge.
The public sector is no better
The public sector does no better than private companies. In the survey’s sample of the 100 largest public sector organisations, as was the case last year, there are no top executives with a multicultural, non-Western background. Within executive teams, the proportion is 1 percent, a marginal improvement from 0.6 percent last year.
We find it odd that the public sector also does not seem to be increasing the proportion of non-Western leaders in their organisations. My clear call to leaders in the public sector is that they should seize the opportunity to set a good example.”
Ali Rana is a strategy consultant and a member of PA Consulting’s executive team. As a strategy consultant, he advises top executives and management teams across Northern Europe. Rana was born in Norway to parents who emigrated from Pakistan. In his daily work, he encounters few, if any, people with a multicultural background.
I think it is a shame that those growing up today do not have more multicultural leaders to look up to, both in the private and public sectors. This is not only of societal value, but diversity also helps companies perform better.”
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