Birkir Hólm Guðnason (born 6 May 1974,

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

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 ...

) was the CEO of

Icelandair Icelandair is the flag carrier of Iceland. Linked from here It is part of the Icelandair Group and operates to destinations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean from its main airline hub, hub at Keflavík International Airport. Its smaller dom ...

, the flag carrier airline in Iceland, from 2008 to 2017.

Life and career

Birkir (see Icelandic name customs) is from

in northern Iceland. He finished a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in Economics and Business Administration in 1998 from Aalborg University,

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. Two years later he finished his MBA in International Business and Economics from the same university. Birkir worked for Icelandair since graduating. He started as Sales Manager in Iceland, then had the same job for North America. He moved back to Europe when he became

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for Central Europe, stationed in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. In 2006, he became General Manager for Scandinavia, stationed in Copenhagen. In May 2008, Birkir was appointed CEO of Icelandair. He presided over the company in turbulent times, first with the Icelandic economic collapse in late 2008 and then the volcanic eruptions in 2010 and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. In September 2018, Birkir became CEO of Samskip Iceland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gudnason, Birkir Holm 1974 births Living people Chief executives in the airline industry Birkir Holm Gudnason Birkir Holm Gudnason Birkir Holm Gudnason Aalborg University alumni