Arild Hermstad

Arild Hermstad (born 15 October 1966) is a Norwegian politician for the Green Party, who has served as the party leader since 2022. He previously served as Party spokesperson, alongside Une Bastholm, from 2018 to 2020, and then the deputy leader from 2020 to 2022.

Education
Hermstad took his secondary education at Bergen Cathedral School in 1985. After studying economics for two years at the Norwegian School of Economics, Hermstad enrolled at the University of Bergen whence he graduated with a major in social geography in 1995.

Personal life
Hermstad is married and has two children.

Career
Hermstad has previously worked in a bank, as a brigade coordinator in Latin America, with local environmental work in Bergen and has been employed by the Rafto Foundation.

He first became known nationwide as leader of Framtiden i våre hender from 2001 to 2017. He was also the leader of the Cyclists' National Association from 2013 to 2018.

He was the Green Party's candidate in Hordaland constituency for the 2017 and 2021 election, but failed to secure a seat on both occasions.

On 12 May 2018, he was elected spokesperson for the Green Party, alongside incumbent Une Bastholm, succeeding Rasmus Hansson.

Following a national conference in 2019, the Green Party decided to elect a single leader, abolishing their tradition of having multiple spokespeople. During a meeting on 25 April 2020 (held digitally due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Hermstad became one of two deputy leaders, alongside Kriss Rokkan Iversen, with Bastholm as leader.

On 17 August 2022, Bastholm announced her resignation as party leader and the Green Party committee scheduled an extrondinary congress for the autumn. Shortly afterwards, Hermstad announced his leadership candidacy, while he in addition would become acting leader on 22 August until the autumn congress. He was designated leader on 10 October, with Lan Marie Berg as deputy leader. He was formally elected at the extraordinary congress on 26 November, winning 102 votes against Kristoffer Robin Haug's 101. He was re-elected at the 2024 party convention.

Between 2 March 2020 and 9 March 2021, he was acting Oslo City Commissioner for Transport and the Environment in addition to Urban Planning, in Lan Marie Berg's and Hanna Marcussen's absences. He again took over Marcussen's duties when she took paternal leave in May 2023.