Nils-Ola Widme is a Senior Director at Burson, bringing 25 years of extensive experience in politics, civil service, legal practice, and political organization leadership. He is Burson's expert on the interplay between European and Norwegian regulatory frameworks, with extensive experience as an advisor, lecturer, and policy developer in this field. He has participated in EU policy development through organizations such as Business Europe and DigitalEurope, and led EFTA's working group on competition policy, playing a central role in the development of Norwegian competition legislation and authorities. Before joining Burson, Nils-Ola led Abelia's policy work on digitalization, research, skills, and innovation, and was for many years engaged in policy and legal issues within regulatory, tax, and fiscal policy. His recent key work includes advocating for a technology-neutral and modern regulation as a member of the committee for the taxi industry (NOU 2023:7 and NOU 2024:15) and producing an extensive defense for the value of commercial producers of welfare services (NOU 2024:17). He is the author of a book on competition and innovation in welfare services, published in 2025. Nils-Ola has built extensive experience in leadership and organizational development and currently serves as a board member of digital enterprises Lovdata and KS Digital AS. His professional background includes serving as a lawyer at DLA Piper and NHO, and as Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. He was also a political advisor to former Minister of Labour and Government Administration Victor Norman. He holds a law degree from the University of Oslo and an Executive MBA in strategic management from the Norwegian School of Economics.
