Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson (born 28 March 1977) is a member of parliament Alþingi in Iceland and the Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market since November 28, 2021. He represents the Left-Green Party. He was Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources from November 30, 2017 to November 28, 2021. He has also served as the CEO of Landvernd, the largest nature conservation and environmental

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

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

gay man ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

to become an Icelandic Minister.

Education and Career

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

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nicknamed ...

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

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) 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' s ...

and a master's degree in environmental science from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. He has worked with research in ecology and environmental studies at the

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

. He was one of the founders of The Icelandic Association of Environmentalist and was the first chairman from 2007 to 2010. In 2011 he became the CEO of Landvernd, an Icelandic environment association. He served as CEO of Landvernd for 6 years.

References

External links

Biography of Guðmundur Ingi on the parliament website (Icelandic)
Gudbrandsson, Gudmundur Ingi Gudbrandsson, Gudmundur Ingi Icelandic LGBT politicians Gudbrandsson, Gudmundur Ingi Environment ministers of Iceland {{Iceland-politician-stub