Christine Sagen Helgø has been the mayor of Stavanger since the regional election of October 2011, representing the Conservative Party of Norway, Høyre (re-elected in 2015) Christine Sagen Helgø has seen sixteen years of Stavanger's politics. She has a law degree from the University of Bergen. She is chair of the board of the Greater Stavanger Economic development and the Port of Stavanger. In the 2014-2016 term she served as president of World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP), which is a network of 20 cities that are globally recognized as international energy capitals, among them Houston, St. Johns, Rio de Janeiro, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Perth.
Mayor Helgø has throughout her time in office had smart cities as one of her main focus areas. As the Norwegian energy capital, the Stavanger region in especially has been affected by the falling oil prices, and we have worked systematically for several years to widening the scope of our economic development. She has also a great involvement in diversity. With 22 percent of our inhabitants with an origin outside Norway and 181 nationalities, Stavanger is one of the most international regions of Norways, and has long traditions of hosting labor immigrants as well as refugees settlement.