Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson (born 28 March 1977) is a former member of parliament (

Alþingi The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what la ...

) in Iceland. He served as Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market, and concurrently as Minister for Nordic Co-operation, from 28 November 2021 to 17 October 2024. He represents the Left-Green Movement. He was Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources from 30 November 2017 to 28 November 2021. He has also been the CEO of Landvernd, the largest nature conservation and environmental

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

in Iceland, from 2011 to 2017. In 2017 he became the first openly

gay man Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may dually identify as ''gay'' and a number of gay men also identify as ''queer''. Historic terminology for gay men has included '' inverts'' and '' uranians''. Gay men conti ...

to become an Icelandic Minister. He is currently the vice-chair of the Left-Green Movement. Previously, he served as chair from April to October 2024 and as vice-chair from October 2019 to April 2024.

Education and career

Guðbrandsson was raised on a farm. His intention was to be a sheep farmer. When he went to a secondary school in

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 ...

he started acting and was interested in becoming an actor, but found out that he did not sing well enough. After graduation he went to the Reykjavik household school and then travelled to Germany, where he stayed in a monastery for a few months. He found out eventually that his faith was not strong enough to be a monk. Guðbrandsson holds a BSc degree in biology from the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) 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' school to a modern co ...

and a master's degree in environmental science from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He has worked with research in ecology and environmental studies at the University of Iceland and at the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland. He then worked at the Institute of Freshwater Fisheries in Hólar in Hjaltadalur. Since 2006 he has been a part-time teacher at the University of Iceland, the

Agricultural University of Iceland The Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) is an educational and research institution focusing on agricultural, environmental sciences, landscape architecture and planning founded in 2005. The university's main location is in Hvanneyri, nea ...

and the University Center of the Westfjords. He has also worked as a ranger in

Þingvellir National Park Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Alþing, the annual parliament of Iceland f ...

and

Vatnajökull National Park Vatnajökull National Park ( ) is one of three national parks in Iceland, and is the largest one. It encompasses all of Vatnajökull glacier and extensive surrounding areas. These include the national parks previously existing at Skaftafell in th ...

. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic Association of Environmentalists and was the first chairman from 2007 to 2010. From 2011 to 2017, he was the CEO of Landvernd, an Icelandic environment association.

References

External links

Biography of Guðmundur Ingi on the parliament website (Icelandic)
1977 births Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Gay politicians Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Living people Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson Yale University alumni {{Iceland-politician-stub