Svein Harald Øygard (born 29 June 1960) is a Norwegian

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and former Interim President of the

Central Bank of Iceland The Central Bank of Iceland (, ) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It is owned by the Icelandic government, and is administered by a governor and a seven-member supervisory board, elected by the country's parliament following ea ...

(Seðlabanki Íslands).

Early life and education

Øygard studied economic sciences in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

and graduated from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

in 1985 with a cand.oecon degree. His focus was on

macroeconomics Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output (econ ...

Career

He was head of the

in 2009, succeeded

Davíð Oddsson Davíð Oddsson (pronounced ; born 17 January 1948) is an Icelandic politician, and the longest-serving prime minister of Iceland, in office from 1991 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he served as Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Iceland), foreign minis ...

and was in office from February to August 2009. In 2019 he published a book in Norwegian, Icelandic and English on the 2008 financial crisis, illustrated with the dramatic boom, bust and recovery of Iceland. The book, In the Combat Zone of Finance, is due to be published in Chinese (Citic Press). Before becoming Governor he was a director in

McKinsey McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey ...

. He started in McKinsey in 1995. During his time at McKinsey and Company, Øygard focused on projects and policy in the energy, industry, finance and public administration sectors. He had clients in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

America 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 ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. From 2005–2007 he was director of McKinsey and Company in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. From 1983 to 1990 Øygard worked in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional represe ...

. During his tenure in the Ministry of Finance he was responsible for the Ministry's inflation analysis and the link between wages and price levels. For a short time, he also worked at the Norwegian central bank,

Norges Bank Norges Bank (, , ) is the central bank of Norway. It is responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, as well as the bank's own foreign exchange reserves. History The histor ...

. From 1990 to 1994, under the

third cabinet Brundtland Brundtland's Third Cabinet was a minority, Labour Government of Norway. It succeeded the H- Sp- KrF Cabinet Syse, and sat between 3 November 1990 and 25 October 1996.State Secretary in the

Norwegian Ministry of Finance The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Finance (Norwegian language, Norwegian: Finansdepartementet) is a Norway, Norwegian Ministry (government department), ministry established in 1814. The ministry is responsible for state finance, including the state ...

. His responsibilities included macroeconomics, the integration of financial and

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to affect monetary and other financial conditions to accomplish broader objectives like high employment and price stability (normally interpreted as a low and stable rat ...

, financial sector regulation and

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

ation. Øygard was part of the team that dealt with the Norwegian banking and currency crisis in 1992. Also in 1992, he led the review of Norwegian tax legislation and was a member of a task force set up by the

Norwegian government The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the prime minister of Norway. Legislative power ...

to examine the potential economic impact of EU membership. Until 2000 Øygard was a member of the Economic Council of the Norwegian Labor Party. He was re-elected as Director in McKinsey & Company September 2009, a role he had until September 2016. In this period he led McKinsey´s work on oil & gas in Latin America, and served as Global research leader, Oil & Gas. In 2017 he co-founded DBO Energy. He was the acting governor of

in 2009. In January 2020, Øygard has published the boo
In the combat zone of finance
The book has been published in 3 languages. In June 2021, Øygard was introduced as chairman of the board of Norwegian Airlines.

References

1960 births Living people McKinsey & Company people Norwegian economists Norwegian state secretaries Labour Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian expatriates in Iceland Governors of the Central Bank of Iceland {{Norway-economist-stub