Ólöf Nordal (3 December 1966 – 8 February 2017) was an Icelandic politician who was the Minister of the Interior of Iceland from 4 December 2014 to 11 January 2017. She died on 8 February 2017. She was a member of the

Independence Party Independence Party may refer to: Active parties Outside United States * Independence Party (Egypt) * Estonian Independence Party * Independence Party (Finland) * Independence Party (Iceland) * Independence Party (Mauritius) * Independence Part ...

Early life

Ólöf graduated from Reykjavík Upper Secondary School in 1986. She received a law degree from the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

in 1994 and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Reykjavík University Reykjavík University (RU; is, Háskólinn í Reykjavík) is the largest private university in Iceland with approximately 3,300 students (October 2020). It is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the ...

in 2002.

Career

Ólöf worked as a teacher, lawyer, and in the administration prior to entering politics. She served as a department head in the Ministry of Transport and Communications from 1996 through 1999. Thereafter, she worked as a lawyer for the

Iceland Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Iceland, formerly known as the Iceland Stock Exchange (XICE) ( is, Kauphöll Íslands), is a stock exchange located in Iceland. It was established in 1985 as a joint venture of several banks and brokerage firms on the initiative of the ...

from 1999 until 2001, and as an instructor of law at

Bifröst University Bifröst University () is located in the valley of List of valleys of Iceland, Norðurárdalur, approximately 30 kilometers north of Borgarnes, Iceland. Originally a business school, it also offers degrees in law and social sciences, at both bach ...

from 1999 until 2002, where she chaired the Business Law Department. Between 2002 and 2004, she served as head of wholesale business at

Landsvirkjun Landsvirkjun, () the National Power Company of Iceland, is Iceland's largest electricity generator. Landsvirkjun operates 18 power plants in Iceland concentrated on five main areas of operation. History Landsvirkjun was founded on 1 July 1965 b ...

and director of sales at RARIK – Iceland State Electricity. During her tenure at RARIK, electricity sales were transferred to a separate company, Orkusalan, where Ólöf served as managing director until 2006. Ólöf was elected to the

Parliament of Iceland The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembl ...

in 2007. She was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the

Northeast Constituency Northeast ( is, Norðaustur) is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Northeastern ( is, Norðurland eystra) in 1959 following the nationwide extension ...

from 2007 to 2009 and for the

Reykjavík Constituency South Reykjavík ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the List of northernmost items, world's northernmost ...

from 2009 to 2013.

Panama Papers

Ólöf appeared in the leaked

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

in connection with offshore holdings. She was quoted as saying that she was "utterly surprised our names are on that list."

Personal life

She was married to Tómas Már Sigurðsson and had four children. She died of cancer on 8 February 2017, aged 50.

References

External links

Althing biography
2017 deaths 1966 births Olof Nordal Olof Nordal Olof Nordal People named in the Panama Papers Olof Nordal Olof Nordal Female interior ministers 21st-century Icelandic women politicians {{Iceland-politician-stub