Markús Örn Antonsson (born 25 May 1943 in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

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 ...

) is an Icelandic journalist and politician. He was the Mayor of Reykjavík from 1991 to 1994.

Education and journalism career

Markús Örn graduated from Reykjavík Junior College in 1965 and was an exchange student in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He worked as a part-time

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

at the daily ''

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic daily newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. It is currently the country's only daily printed newspaper and the newspaper of record. Hi ...

'' from 1961 to 1965 and was trained in

broadcast journalism Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

and

television production A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

in the UK and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, then worked as a reporter and programme producer at Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) TV. He served as a member of the Broadcasting Council from 1979 to 1985 and as chairman from 1983 to 1985. Markús Örn then served as Director General of the RÚV TV and Radio from 1985 to 1991 and as Director General of RÚV TV and Radio from 1998 to 2005.

Political career

Markús Örn served as a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...

lor in Reykjavík from 1970 to 1985 and was a member of the executive committee of the Reykjavík City Council and chairman of several committee and was president of the City Council from 1983 to 1985. He served as

Mayor of Reykjavík The post of Mayor of Reykjavík () was created in 1907 and advertised in 1908. Páll Einarsson and Knud Zimsen applied for the job and Páll got the position for a period of six years, at the end of which he did not wish to renew his tenure. Rather ...

from 1991 to 1994. Markús Örn was appointed the Icelandic

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

on 1 November 2005.

References

Bio on embassy homepage
1943 births Living people Markus Orn Antonsson Markus Orn Antonsson Markus Orn Antonsson Markus Orn Antonsson Icelandic expatriates in the United States {{Iceland-diplomat-stub