Helge Akre

He was a son of Herman Skyrud (1859–1913) and Oline Akre (1871–1967), and bore his mother's last name from 1933.

He took his secondary education in Rouen and graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.jur.

He worked as a translator and attorney before being hired in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1936.

He served in Brazil, Japan, China, Poland, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in his early career.

From 1963 he served as the Norwegian ambassador to the People's Republic of China.