Benedikt Jóhannesson (born 4 May 1955) is an

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 ...

ic publisher, businessman and politician. He is the founder and former chairman of Viðreisn 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. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Statistics and Mathematics from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. 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 ''Iceland Review'' is the oldest English-language magazine about Iceland, having originally been published in August 1963. It also runs a news website which covers current events in Iceland. Since 2009, the online version is offered in German as w ...

''. In June 2014 he founded Viðreisn as a political network after leaving the

Independence Party Independence Party may refer to: Active parties Outside United States * Independence Party (Egypt) * Estonian Independence Party * Independence Party (Finland) * Independence Party (Iceland) * Independence Party (Mauritius) * Independence Part ...

. Benedikt made it a political party 24 May 2016 with him as chairman. He was elected to the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ("thing fields" or "assembly ...

for the

Southwest Constituency Southwest ( is, Suðvestur) is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Reykjanes in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation ...

in the 2016 election, but failed to get reelected in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. 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 20th-century Icelandic businesspeople 21st-century Icelandic businesspeople