The Head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the group that awards the Nobel Peace Prize, has died after a long bout with cancer, the committee announced on Monday.
Kaci Kullmann Five, chairwoman of the five-member panel since 2015 and committee member since 2003, died Sunday, Olav Njolstad, non-voting secretary of the Nobel Committee said.
Kullmann Five, who was 65, was the first woman to lead Norway’s Conservatives party a post she had from 1991to 1994.
She served in parliament from 1981 to 1997 and was trade minister from 1989 to 1990.
She was known for her interest in gender equality and foreign affairs.
Njolstad and Deputy Chairperson Berit Reiss Andersen said in a statement distributed by news agency that the committee had lost “a wise and unifying leader’’.
The committee in October selected President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia as the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, citing his role in ending a more-than-50-year-long civil war.
Kullmann Five missed out on the December 10 award ceremony in Oslo City Hall because of her illness. Reis-Andersen read her speech.
Committee members are appointed by the Norwegian parliament. The committee normally keeps a tight lid on its deliberations, as well as advising nominators not to publicly announce their choices.
A record 376 nominations were considered in 2016.
Njolstad said it was not clear when the committee would announce its tally of nominees for this year or when a successor to Five Kullmann would be named.
The peace prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
