Vidar Helgesen is Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. He has held several public positions in the Norwegian government, as Special Representative for the Ocean, Minister of Climate and Environment, Minister of European Affairs and Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister, as well as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Internationally, he has served as Co-chair of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Secretary-General of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and as Special Advisor to the President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He is a Board member of CICERO Center for International Climate Research, and a co-chair of the Advisory Board for the UN Decade for Ocean Science.