Tom Thoresen is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 politician for the Labour Party

Norwegian Labour Party

The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....

.

He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Østfold

Østfold

is a county in southeastern Norway, bordering Akershus and southwestern Sweden , while Buskerud and Vestfold is on the other side of the bay. The seat of the county administration is Sarpsborg, and Fredrikstad is the largest city.Many manufacturing facilities are situated here. Moss and...

 in 1977, and was re-elected on five occasions.

On the local level Thoresen was a member of Fredrikstad

Fredrikstad

is a city and municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad....

 city council from 1971 to 1987.

Outside of politics, he graduated as candidatus philologiae in 1974 and worked one year as a high school teacher. From 1983 to 1987 he was deputy leader of the now-defunct government agency Likestillingsrådet. In 2002 he was appointed director of Statens Medieforvaltning, which was merged with other institutions in 2005 to become the Norwegian Media Authority. Thoresen continued as director.