Svein Harald Øygard (born 29 June 1960) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

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, Seðlabanki Íslands) is the central bank or reserve bank of Iceland. It has served in this capacity since 1961, when it was created by an act of the Alþingi out of the central banking department of Landsbank ...

(Seðlabanki Íslands).

Early life and education

Øygard studied economic sciences in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) 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 ...

and graduated from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

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

macroeconomics Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...

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 foreign minister. Previously, he was Mayor of Reykjav ...

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 is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

. 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 large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

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

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

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

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

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

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) 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 base ...

. 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 / Noregs Bank is the central bank of Norway. The bank shall promote economic stability in Norway. Norges Bank also manages the Government Pension Fund of Norway and the bank’s own foreign exchange reserves. History The history of ...

. 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: Finansdepartementet) is a Norwegian ministry established in 1814. The ministry is responsible for state finance, including the state budget, taxation and economic policy in Norway. It is led by T ...

. 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 control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...

, financial sector regulation and

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

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 is ...

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.https://www.sedlabanki.is/library/Skraarsafn/ymsar-skrar/Bankastjorn%20fra%20upphafi.pdf 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