Kjell Lillerud was born 28 April 1949 in Sarpsborg, Norway. After finishing high school in 1968 he served in the Artillery of the Norwegian Army until 1969. Before entering the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen in 1971 he took a post-graduate course at Oslo Business College in 1970 and then worked as a Financial Analyst at Ford Motor Company, Norway from 1970 to 1971.
After graduating from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in 1974 he was accepted as a trainee in the Norwegian Foreign Service in 1975. His first posting was as Secretary of Embassy to the Norwegian Delegation to the EC in Brussels in 1977. In 1980 he moved to Washington DC to work as an Advisor to the Executive Director of the Nordic countries in the World Bank.
After two and a half years at the World Bank he took a leave of absence from 1982 to 1986 to work as a commercial banker at Den norske Creditbank in Oslo. In 1986 he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was subsequently posted to the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva in 1987. In Geneva he served as Counsellor of Embassy and Deputy Permanent Representative to the GATT during most of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations until 1993.
From 1993 to 1994 he served as an Advisor on European Affairs at the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture in Oslo. In 1994 he was appointed Deputy Director General at the GATT/WTO-section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1995 to 2000 he worked as a Special Advisor in the Ministry, first on Nordic Affairs and subsequently on international investment matters related to the negotiations at the OECD on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).
From 2000 to 2002 Mr. Lillerud served as Minister Counsellor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, and from 2002 to 2005 as Minister Counsellor and DCM at the Permanent Delegation of Norway to the OECD in Paris.
From 2005 to 2009 he worked as Chief Negotiator for Norway on the services negotiations of the DOHA-round trade talks at the World Trade Organisation.
Kjell Lillerud was appointed Norwegian ambassador to Nigeria in August 2009 and arrived in Abuja 12 September 2009.
Mr. Lillerud is married and has three sons, two of which live in Norway and one in New York City.