Career
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Rogaland in 1997, but not re-elected in 2001. During Bondevik"s Second Cabinet, Kvassheim was appointed state secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister. He was re-elected to a second parliamentary term in 2005, where he became chair of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment.
He failed to be re-elected in 2009 because the Liberal Party missed about 3000 votes.
Outside politics he has spent his career in newspapers. He was a journalist from 1976 to 1986 and editor-in-chief of Dalane Tidende from 1986 to 1997.
From 2009, he became vice president at Lyse Energi.