Ketil Solvik-Olsen

In 2013 Solvik-Olsen was elected second deputy leader of the Progress Party.

After the 2013 election, Solvik-Olsen was appointed Minister of Transportation in Erna Solberg's new cabinet.

Solvik-Olsen announced in 2012 that he would not seek renomination for the 2013 parliamentary election due to family concerns including his wife's career as a medical doctor.

Solvik-Olsen publicly announced his withdrawal from the Church of Norway in 2010, after the church leadership had publicly opposed oil exploration in Lofoten and Vesterålen. He is connected to Pentecostalism, as he for several years has attended the Pentecostal congregation Filadelfia. While his wife is a member of the congregation and his two children are baptised there, he is not a formal member himself since it requires a Believer's baptism, and he considers his childhood baptism to be valid and sufficient. He has stated that as of present he only has his personal direct contact with God, not being part of any "earthly membership lists".

He was a member of the Norwegian Parliament for Rogaland from 2005, until deciding not to seek renomination in 2013.

Aside from being deputy in the Oslo city council, he had never before served as an elected official when he was elected to the Storting from Rogaland in 2005. He was re-elected in 2009. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment from 2005 to 2011, and delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 2011.

He was an exchange student to the United States at Blissfield High School, Michigan from 1989 to 1990. From 1994 to 1997 he studied political science and social economics (summa cum laude) at the University of Toledo, Ohio. He spent over five years in the US, including work for Disney, as a volunteer during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and as an intern in the United States Senate.

Solvik-Olsen joined the Progress Party's Youth when he was fifteen years old, in 1987. He held various positions locally within the youth organisation from 1988 to 1992. He made his way into national politics initially by working as a political advisor and aide to Øyvind Vaksdal and Siv Jensen for five years, having moved to Oslo around 1998.

A lifelong teetotaler, he abstains from all stimulants, including tobacco, and coffee. He is however, a notorious aficionado of chocolate, an addiction which has been described as "morbid". He compensates the high-sugar diet by eating very small regular meals, and skipping lunch altogether. Since his stay in the United States, Solvik-Olsen has been a automobile enthusiast, his collection includes a second generation 1985 model Cadillac Seville, a convertible Dodge Stratus, in addition to over 80 Model cars. He is a supporter of Bryne FK football club.

Ketil Solvik-Olsen (born 14 February 1972) is a Norwegian politician of the Progress Party who served as Minister of Transport and Communications from 2013 to 2018 and as the party’s second deputy leader from 2013 to 2019.

Solvik-Olsen was born and raised in Time, Rogaland to self-employed businessman Aksel Emil Solvik-Olsen (born 1943) and socionom Berit Lagergren (born 1943). After finishing Rosseland elementary School, he attended Bryne Upper Secondary school, and later an International Baccalaureate at St. Olav Upper Secondary school in Stavanger from 1990 to 1992.