Benedikt Jóhannesson (born 4 May 1955) is an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic publisher, businessman and politician. He is the founder and former chairman of

Viðreisn Viðreisn (), officially known in English as the Liberal Reform Party, is a Liberalism, liberal political party political parties in Iceland, in Iceland positioned on the Centrism, centre to Centre-right politics, centre-right of the political spe ...

and served as Iceland's Minister of Finance from 11 January 2017 to 30 November 2017. Benedikt is the CEO of publishing company Heimur, in which he owns 73.5% of the shares. He has run this company since 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and Mathematics from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. He has also run the consulting company Talnakönnun, a firm specialising in data analysis, since 1983. He has been a board member of some of Iceland's largest companies and published a collection of short stories. He is the publisher of a weekly newsletter on Icelandic business and economics called '' Iceland Review''. In June 2014 he founded

as a political network after leaving the Independence Party. Benedikt made it a political party 24 May 2016 with him as chairman. He was elected to the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

for the Southwest Constituency in the 2016 election, but failed to get reelected in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. In October 2017, Benedikt resigned as leader of Viðreisn, citing the party's poor performance in polling in the run up to the Icelandic election that month as the reason behind his departure.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Johannesson, Benedikt 1955 births Living people Florida State University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Benedikt Johannesson Benedikt Johannesson Benedikt Johannesson Benedikt Johannesson Viðreisn politicians