Heiða Kristin Helgadóttir (born 20 April 1983) is an Icelandic politician and entrepreneur. She founded and led the

Best Party The Best Party ( is, Besti flokkurinn) was an Icelandic political party founded by Jón Gnarr on 16 November 2009. The party ran in the 2010 city council election in Reykjavík and won a plurality on the Reykjavík City Council, receiving 34.7% ...

and Bright Future.

Early life and education

Helgadóttir was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She earned a BA in political science 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 ...

Career

After graduating from university, Helgadóttir worked in an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

laboratory. While there her friend

Gaukur Úlfarsson Gaukur Úlfarsson (born ) is an Icelandic film maker and film director. Gaukur began his career directing advertisements and music videos. In the 2003 Edda Awards, he won the Music Video of the Year (''Tónlistarmyndband ársins'') for ''Mes ...

introduced her to comedian

Jón Gnarr Jón Gnarr (; born 2 January 1967)This is an Icelandic name. ''Kristinsson'' is the patronymic, but he is properly referred to as ''Jón Gnarr'' as he had it legally removed. is an Icelandic actor, comedian, and politician who served as the Ma ...

. Amid the

Icelandic financial crisis Icelandic refers to anything of, from, or related to Iceland and may refer to: *Icelandic people *Icelandic language *Icelandic alphabet * Icelandic cuisine See also * Icelander (disambiguation) * Icelandic Airlines, a predecessor of Icelandai ...

they created the Best Party in 2009 with the original intention to parody political practices in Iceland. In 2010, Helgadóttir ran the Best Party's campaign in Reykjavik's election, resulting in a shock win which made Gnarr mayor of the city. During Gnarr's tenure as Reykjavik mayor, which ended in 2014, Helgadóttir was his close confidante and advisor and served as CEO of the Best Party. In 2012, Helgadóttir founded the political party Bright Future, the successor to the Best Party, with

Guðmundur Steingrímsson Guðmundur Steingrímsson (born 28 October 1972) is an Icelandic politician. He is the son and grandson of former Icelandic Prime Ministers Steingrímur Hermannsson and Hermann Jónasson. Career Guðmundur was a member of the Althing for Southwe ...

. She served as chairman of the party from its founding through December 2014. In the Bright Future's first election in April 2013, the party received 8.2% of the general vote, giving it six out of the 63 seats in Iceland's parliament. In 2015, Helgadóttir served as a parliamentarian for Bright Future in place of her colleague Björt Ólafsdóttir while she was on maternity leave. In 2015, Helgadóttir hosted a weekly political news show on Iceland's Channel 2. In 2015, Helgadóttir co-founded the Reykjavík-based startup incubator and marketing firm EFNI with American entrepreneur Oliver Luckett. They are the co-founders of

Niceland Seafood Niceland Seafood is an Icelandic company operating in the United States which produces fish. History A visit to Iceland inspired former Head of Innovation at The Walt Disney Company and founder and former CEO of theAudience, Oliver Luckett, to g ...

Personal life

Helgadóttir is the mother of two children. She is married to Guðmundur Kristján Jónsson.

References

Heida Kristín Helgadóttir Heida Kristín Helgadóttir Heida Kristín Helgadóttir 1983 births Living people Heida Kristín Helgadóttir {{Iceland-politician-stub