Press release from the Nobel Foundation

Nobel Foundation Executive Director Vidar Helgesen gets new top job

2 November 2023 View in Swedish

Vidar Helgesen. Photo: Clément Morin

The Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation, Vidar Helgesen, will become the Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO. He will take up his new position on 1 March 2024. The process of recruiting his successor has been initiated.

“The Board of Directors of the Nobel Foundation and I are grateful for the important development work that Vidar has carried out during his time as Executive Director. Under his leadership, the Nobel Center project in particular has been given a new start in a new location. I congratulate Vidar on his new role – and UNESCO for gaining a leader who can contribute to its important work on behalf of the world’s oceans,” says Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Chair of the Nobel Foundation. 

“It has not been an easy decision. I really enjoy being able to contribute to the development of the Nobel Foundation’s activities and the power of the Nobel Prize to spread hope and inspiration around the world. At the same time, I have a strong commitment to environmental and marine resource issues. IOC-UNESCO has a clear mandate within the United Nations to promote marine research and better ocean management. I look forward to helping strengthen this global effort within the framework of my new assignment,” says Vidar Helgesen. 

Prior to joining the Nobel Foundation, Vidar Helgesen was Norway’s special envoy to the international High Level Panel for Building a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Helgesen has also worked as a lawyer, diplomat and politician; this has included serving as Norway’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Minister of European Affairs and from 2015 to 2018 as Minister of Climate and the Environment.

The recruitment process for a new Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation has been initiated. 

 

 

Nobel Foundation

The Nobel Foundation is a private foundation established in 1900 on the basis of the will of Alfred Nobel and the founding statutes promulgated in connection with the will. Its primary purpose is to ensure that the intentions of the will of Alfred Nobel are fulfilled. The Foundation is responsible for ensuring that the assets made available for awarding the Nobel Prize are managed in such a way as to safeguard the economic base of the Prize in a long-term perspective and guarantee the independence of the prize-awarding institutions in their work of selecting Laureates. The Nobel Foundation is also entrusted with managing and carefully developing the trademarks and intangible assets that have been built up during the more than century-long history of the Nobel Prize.

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