Björgólfur Jóhannsson (born in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

on August 28, 1955) is an Icelandic business executive, former President and CEO of

Icelandair Group Icelandair Group hf. is an Icelandic travel industry corporation, the owner and holding company of the airline Icelandair and several other travel industry companies in Iceland. The group's headquarters are at Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík. ...

, the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

of Icelandair, the

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hi ...

of Iceland. Björgólfur resigned as the Company's President & CEO on 27 August 2018 and Bogi Nils Bogason, the Company's CFO, became interim President & CEO of the Company Björgólfur was also the chairman of the board of the Confederation of Icelandic Employers but stepped down On 7 March 2017

Biography

Björgólfur comes from Grenivík in the north of Iceland, close to

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nickn ...

. He graduated with a degree in Business Administration 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 1983 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1985. From 1980 to 1992 he worked for accountancy firms in Akureyri. In 1992 Björgólfur became Chief Financial Officer of the fisheries company Útgerðarfélag Akureyringa hf, but in 1996 moved to the powerful

Samherji Samherji hf. is a fishing and fish processing company in Iceland. It is the largest fishing company in Iceland, and one of the largest in Europe. It was founded in Grindavík in 1972. Its current headquarters are in Akureyri, but the company ope ...

fisheries company, also based in Akureyri, where he became Director of Innovation and Development. In 1999 Björgólfur became Chief Executive Officer of yet another fisheries company, Síldarvinnslan. Then in 2006 he was chosen as the new CEO of Icelandic Group, a global sales and marketing company for frozen fish products. From 2003 to 2008 Björgólfur was also the President of The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (LIU), a very powerful position in Iceland. In May 2008 he became CEO of

. The 2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis proved a great challenge for Björgólfur and his staff but after a financial reconstruction of the company, completed in 2011, he insisted the future looks bright, as the rise in tourism in Iceland bodes well for the company. On 6 March 2013 Björgólfur was elected the Chairman of the Board of the SA, the Confederation of Icelandic Employers, a very influential position in Iceland. He received 98,5 percent of the votes. On 4 April 2014 Björgólfur was re-elected. As chairman of the SA, Björgólfur took an active part in negotiations with the ASÍ, the

Icelandic Federation of Labour The Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASÍ) (Icelandic: Alþýðusamband Íslands) is a trade union centre in Iceland. It was formed in 1916 and has a membership of 104,500, approximately half of the Icelandic workforce. The ASÍ is affiliated ...

, in December 2013, resulting in attempts to maintain the fragile economic stability of post-crash Iceland. In April 2014 both SA and ASÍ joined forces with other important players in the Icelandic economic arena in presenting a comprehensive report of the Icelandic Institute of International Affairs about the state of Iceland's accession negotiations with the EU. On 14 November, following the bribery scandal allegations in the

Fishrot Files On 12 November 2019, WikiLeaks began publishing what it called the Fishrot Files ( is, Samherjaskjölin), a collection of thousands of documents and email communication by employees of one of Iceland's largest fish industry companies, Samherji, tha ...

published by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, the board of

announced that Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson had temporary stepped aside as CEO and would be replaced by Björgólfur while the company conducted an internal investigation on the allegations.

Personal life

Björgólfur is married to teacher Málfríður Pálsdóttir and they have two daughters born in 1990–91 and two grandchild's.

Awards

In December 2012 both the Viðskiptablaðið, the Icelandic business weekly, and

Fréttablaðið ''Fréttablaðið'' ( en, The Newspaper) is a free Icelandic newspaper. It is distributed five days per week. History and profile ''Fréttablaðið'' was established in 2001. It was originally owned primarily by the media group ''365''. The paper ...

, Iceland's leading newspaper, chose Björgólfur as their "Businessman of the Year" for 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johannson, Bjorgolfur Living people 1955 births 20th-century Icelandic businesspeople 21st-century Icelandic businesspeople