Ivar Hippe is a Norwegian political consultant, former journalist and presenter. He received national media attention in 1982 when he was expelled from Argentina by the government. On his return to Norway he began working for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1999 he became editor-in-chief of the Norwegian financial journal Økonomisk Rapport. In 2003 he wrote the book , which followed Tore Tønne's last days before his suicide. The book received good reviews and, after the book's release, Hippe became Gerd-Liv Valla's consultant. He is the older brother of Jon Hippe, the current leader of the Fafo Foundation. Hippe is currently working for the public relations company Agendum.
Career
Hippe was born in Oslo and studied at the University of Oslo where he earned the academic degreecandidatus rerum politicarum. By the late 1970s Hippe had joined the Latin American Group in Oslo and became one of its leading members. The organisation had around 80 members and had collaborated with Amnesty International on projects involving Latin America. Hippe later landed a job as a journalist for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet and became the paper's correspondent in Argentina. Hippe and Frode Holst, a journalist from Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, were arrested and expelled from Argentina in 1982 by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who claimed that they were spies working for the British government. Holst was put on a plane to Brazil and Hippe left for Santiago, Chile. In a press conference Argentina's Minister of InteriorBernardo Menendez claimed that the journalists were "compromising national security". In 1984 he sent a job application to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation to become their correspondent in Latin America. When he moved back to Norway he worked for NRK Arbeiderbladet and Fafo. Until 1999 Hippe worked in the economic news sector at NRK. In 1999 Hippe became Editor-in-Chief of Økonomisk Rapport. Hippe openly supported the Labour PartyPrime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg from mid 2000 in Stoltenberg's first term. Hippe believed the government needed to spend more money from the Norwegian oil fund, saying: "The greatest paradox today is that the government refuses to investigate what it will mean to buy goods and services abroad in fear that someone will come up with the idea of spending more money than we do today. The government plays with the lives of the sick and aggravates children's education because of the dogma that oil money cannot be used". Hippe left his position as Editor-in-Chief in 2002 because the new owners did not share the same future plans for the magazine as he did. He was succeeded by Joachim Bamrud. Six months after Hippe left a number of journalists and most of the old leadership staff had also left the magazine. After quitting his job he was asked to write a book about Tore Tønne, and his recent suicide. When writing the book Hippe interviewed 60 key acquaintances, with the exception of Kjell Inge Røkke who had a friendly relationship with Tønne before his death. The book, entitled , was published in 2003 and received considerable acclaim. Before becoming a political consultant he was one of four who applied for the position as director of the Institute for Journalism in 2006. He was not chosen and instead became a consultant for the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, Gerd-Liv Valla. In 2006 he worked alongside Erik Solheim and Jonas Gahr Støre on the "Norwegian Project", a government-funded project with Brazil. According to Hippe the project works for an extensive social dialogue between the employers where they "deliberately chose cooperation and dialogue rather than confrontation and conflict with society around them". As of 2010 he works as a consultant for the public relations company Agendum and Hippe Consult, a company owned by himself. In May 2010 Hippe chaired a debate for the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police on the proposal to introduce data storage directives into Norwegian law. Hippe briefly worked as the consultant to Ellen Kristin Dahl-Pedersen who was set to inherit parts of Ellen Ugland's fortune.
Personal life
He is the older brother of Jon Hippe, the former leader of Fafo. Hippe, along with his brother, has a friendly relationship with the former Prime Minister of Norway and current NATOsecretary general Jens Stoltenberg. He has two sons, Mathias and Trym Hippe. Currently, he's in a relationship with renowned author Vigdis Hjorth.
