Bárður á Steig Nielsen (; born 16 April 1972) is a Faroese politician and businessman who serves as leader of the Union Party since 2015 and was

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

from 2019 to 2022. He is also goalkeeper of the VÍF Vestmanna handball team and a former

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player of the Faroe Islands national team.

Education and business career

Bárður á Steig Nielsen has finished the first part of a Danish HD education in Management accounting from Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences and has taken some of the subjects of the ''Merkonom'' education from Føroya Handilsskúli. He started his business career as an employee in the accountancy firm ''Rasmussen og Weihe'' in

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; ; Danish language, Danish: ''Thorshavn''), usually locally referred to as simply Havn, is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of th ...

1993–2000. From 2001 to 2004 he was employed as the chief Accountant at the Kollafjord Pelagic in

Kollafjørður Kollafjørður () is a village in the Faroe Islands, located on the island of Streymoy. As of 29. April 2025, the village had a population of 815. Its postal code is FO 410. Until 2001 it was a municipality in its own right but is now part of the ...

. In 2007 he left his position as the Finance Minister of the Faroe Islands in order to become the general manager of the large scale building project SMI Stóratjørn in Hoyvík, planned by Icelandic business people. The project was never implemented because of the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

; á Steig Nielsen was employed there until February 2009. In 2009–2010 he was the general manager of a machine shop in Hoyvík 2009–2010. From 2010 he was the CFO of the

telephone company A telecommunications company is a kind of electronic communications service provider, more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many t ...

Vodafone Føroyar in Tórshavn. He has been a board member of the

Vágar Airport Vágar Airport () is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, and is located east of the village of Sørvágur, on the island of Vágar and 46 km (29 miles) west of the capital Tórshavn. Due to the Faroe Islands' status as a self-governing ...

, Kollafjord Pelagic and of a few other trading companies in Tórshavn.

Political career

Bárður á Steig Nielsen was elected to the Faroese parliament representing Norðurstreymoy in the periods of 2002–2004 and 2004–2008. He was the finance minister in the first cabinet of Jóannes Eidesgaard from 2004, but left the position in order to become the leader of the Stóra Tjørn building project, which was later cancelled because of the

. In the 2011 elections, he was re-elected for the Løgting. In March 2015, he was elected vice chairman of his party and on 24 October 2015, he was elected as the chairman of the Union Party. He was reelected to the Faroese parliament at the 2022 elections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Bardur a Steig 1972 births Living people People from Vestmanna Municipality Union Party (Faroe Islands) politicians Members of the Løgting Faroese sportsperson-politicians Faroese male handball players