Johansen is educated as a plumber, but most of his working life has been dedicated to politics. At the age of 30 he was appointed to the City Government in Oslo as Vice Mayor for Transport and Nature Preservation and Johansen has served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under both Cabinets of Jens Stoltenberg – when he also lead on Norway’s PVE efforts. Johansen served as the Secretary General of the Labour Party from 2009 until 2015 when he resigned to run for Governing Mayor of Oslo.
He was Secretary General for Labour ten years ago, in 2011 when Oslo and Utøya were attacked by a violent extremist, and 77 people were killed. 69 of them were participants at the Labour party youth camp at Utøya.
Governing Mayor Johansen has gained broad experience with international development from his work as Head of Department in the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)) and as Secretary General for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
On 21 October 2015 Raymond Johansen started his term as Governing Mayor of Oslo and leads a City Government Coalition composed of representatives from the Labour Party, the Green Party and the Socialist Left Party.
Oslo is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, and has inhabitants from more than 200 nations. The capital is a green city with a unique access to nature, pulsating cultural life, great academic institutions and a business community full of initiative. Governing Mayor Johansen has very ambitious goals for the development of Oslo, ensuring a vibrant, green and climate-smart city with equal opportunities for everyone.
