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Professional Experiences
Alþingi – Parliament of Iceland
Member of Parliament (MP)
2021-
- Elected Member of Parliament for the Pirate Party in the South Western constituency of Iceland.
- I serve as the deputy chair of the Industries Committee, which deals with fishing, agriculture, industry, tourism, and Innovation.
- I serve as a member on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
- I serve as a member of the International Development Committee
- I serve as a member of the EEA/EFTA Parliamentary Group.
- I am the current Secretary of the Pirate Party Parliamentary Group.
- Spokesperson for Children Rights in Parliament
- Member of Iceland’s Export and Marketing Council
- My main focus in parliament so far has been on improving the rights and handling of victims of sexual abuse, ensuring growth in the innovation sector in Iceland, fight for more humane handling of asylum seekers, and driving a more comprehensive climate change agenda
One Acre Fund
Chief Technology Officer
2019-2021
- Chief Technology Officer of an African based NGO focused on helping small-holder farmers escape extreme poverty.
- Led the digital transformation of a social enterprise based out of East Africa that focuses on helping over 1.2 million smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa escape extreme poverty.
- Led and built a team of over 83 staff that span six departments, including Development, Product Management, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Services, IT operations, and Information Security.
- Key focus on my role is on moving the organization from a decade old custom made solution that mainly digitizes old paper based processes over to a fully digital environment that leverages the changes in the IT landscape over the past few years in East Africa and to move the division into an Agile and ITSM focused environment
NetHope Inc.
Humanitarian Advisor
2015-
- Advisor on humanitarian preparedness and response for a consortium of 60+ of the leading NGOs in the world.
Beringer Finance
Chief Technology Officer
2015-2018
- Partner and member of senior management team of the largest tech focused investment bank in Europe.
- Responsible for formulating and managing the disruptive information technology strategy for the global expansion of the firm and for bringing the 103 year old bank into the digital age.
- CEO of US subsidiary, responsible for establishing the US presence.
- Assisted numerous startups and technology companies in fundraising efforts
NetHope Inc.
Emergency Response Director
2010-2015
- Responsible for managing and coordinating the ICT related aspects of emergency preparedness and response for 57 of the leading NGOs in the world.
- Trusted advisor to CIOs of the member NGOs on the usage of ICT in emergency response.
- Close collaboration with the United Nation’s CIOs on issues related to emergency telecommunication.
- Member of NetHope’s core leadership team, responsible for fiscal management, fundraising, recruitment, and program management of NetHope’s global emergency response program.
- Lead a broad public-private partnership focused on bringing Open Data to humanitarian response.
- Lead multi-million dollar public private technology related responses to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and European Refugee Crisis
Microsoft Corporation
Disaster Management Technical Advisor
2007-2010
- Provided trusted advice to international organizations such as United Nations, European Commission, NATO, International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent, and World Bank on the effective use technology in disaster response.
- Provided trusted advice to national governments on the effective use of technology in disaster response.
- Worked closely with CIOs from international organizations and national governments on ICT strategy development in emergency response
- Key member of Microsoft’s Disaster Response Team, which deployed to major natural disasters worldwide.
- Lead distributed development of a technology solution for United Nations that enabled more effective cluster coordination during emergencies. This involved working with stakeholders and users from 100+ organizations. The distributed software development effort involved 15+ Microsoft Partners and 50+ Microsoft developers and software architects.
- Lead distributed development effort of a technology solution for World Health Organization to enable better information sharing during H1N1 response.
Microsoft Iceland
Partner Group Manager/Acting Country Manager
2003-2007
- Part of a leadership team that was tasked with establishing the Microsoft Iceland subsidiary and building it up from 2 employees to 20 employees
- Managed partner channel sales and marketing team, consistently exceeding sales quotas and staying within operational budget
- Responsible for establishing local hiring process and key member in the interview process for all staff hired.
- Provided technology advice to CIOs of corporations within Iceland on effective use of technology in their organizations.
- Lead technical evangelism and all technical sales related activities within the subsidiary
- Hosted and spoke at numerous IT and developer events both within Iceland and in Europe.
- Acting Country Manager for 6 months in 2006.
University of Reykjavik
Lecturer – Computer Science Department
2002-2004
- Designed and taught classes on .net, web services and service orientated architecture development
- Most popular 3rd year class in computer science, with a total of over 600 students taught over a 2 year period
Gridland ehf
Founder & CEO
2002-2003
- Founded an IT consulting and software development start-up firm
- Main customers included venture capital firms and civil protection organizations
- Developed and sold an application for coordination of search and rescue activities
- Performed technical due diligence for VC firms on over 30 startups
IMG Capacent
Senior IT Consultant
2001-2002
- Responsible for establishing a department that focused on IT consulting to leading Icelandic firms.
- Main customers included large corporations in Iceland in addition to venture capital firms
Microsoft Corporation
Lead Program Manager
1998-2001
- Lead Program Manager on Digital Dashboard (later known as SharePoint Portal Server), leading a cross-company team that delivered 3 resource kits over an 18-month period.
- Program Manager on Microsoft Repository/SQL Server Meta Data Services, leading project management and architectural design of the technology for 2 versions of Visual Studio and 1 version of SQL Server.
- Successfully shipped technologies into major products 5 times in 3 years, always on time.
- Managed a team of 3 program managers.
- Spoke at various Microsoft conferences around the world.
Medtronic Corporation
Program Manager
1996-1998
- Project manager and chief software designer of a medical diagnostics software company.
- Managed a software development and test team of 17 people
- Successfully achieved CE/FDA certification of the software development process
Nervus (Taugagreining)
Software Developer
1994-1996
- Wrote software for neurological diagnostics software
- Responsible for embedded development on digital signal processing chips
- Responsible for development and architecture design of business layer of solution
Rank Xerox Ltd.
Software Developer
1993-1994
- Wrote device drivers for color laser printers
- Performed a number of proof-of-concept development for potential patent applications.
Axel Software
Software Developer (part-time)
1986-1991
- Worked part-time along school as a software developer, writing software for high-school and college student information system
Volunteer Experience
United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team (UNDAC)
Member
2005-Present
- Active member of a UN expert team of disaster management professionals, that get deployed on a few hour notice to anywhere in the world to help coordinate the response of the international community.
- Deployed to Ghana Floods in 2007 and Indonesia Earthquake in 2009.
- Work closely with high level national government officials on issues related to disaster response and information management
- Responsible for technology related training of UNDAC members 2005-2009
ICE-SAR
Urban Search and Rescue Team Leader
2005-2010
- Lead the team during Haiti earthquake response, where it was the first international team to arrive.
- Responsible for growing the team to around 70 search and rescue experts from 6 different rescue organizations.
- Successfully lead the team through international peer certification in 2009, qualifying it as a medium rescue team.
- Actively involved in INSARAG, the UN umbrella organization of international rescue team as an active participant in various working groups, defining certification standards, operational processes, etc.
- Lead 2 peer-certifications of international teams and member of two other certifications.
ICE-SAR
National Search and Rescue Command – Member
2005-2009
- Member of the national SAR command, responsible for coordinating the efforts of 100 SAR teams around Iceland in collaboration with law enforcement and civil protection activities.
- Incident manager and coordinator for over 300 incidents of search, rescue, and disaster response.
ICE-SAR
Regional Search and Rescue Command – Incident Commander
2001-Present
- Lead the regional SAR command for the capitol area, responsible for coordinating the efforts of SAR teams in collaboration with law enforcement and civil protection activities.
- Incident manager or section manager for over 400 incidents of search, rescue, and disaster response.
King County Emergency Operation Center Support Team
Leader
1998-2001
- Lead a team of 30+ volunteers that provided support to King County Office of Emergency Management during disaster activations and to King County Sheriff’s Office during search and rescue missions.
ICE-SAR – Hafnarfjordur Rescue Team
Member
1994-Present
- Member of a local search and rescue team, responding to searches for missing people, rescues of injured people and disasters.
Education
University of Iceland
Masters – International Development
2017-
In process of completing a master’s degree in International Development. Currently writing thesis.
University of Iceland
Diploma Studies – International Development
2013-2017
Completed Diploma Studies in spring 2017.
University of Copenhagen
B.Sc. Computer Science & Chemistry
1991-1993
Majored in both computers science and chemistry.
University of Iceland
Chemistry
1989-1991
Studied chemistry before transferring to Copenhagen.
Awards
- Microsoft Alumni Foundation – Integral Fellow Award 2012 – Finalist
- Humanity Road – Global Citizenship Award 2012 – Humanitarian Service Award
- UNICEF Humanitarian Innovation Fellow – 2013
Committees
- US State Department – Member of sub-committee on the use of Information and Communication Technology in International Disasters – 2010-Present
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – Technology Partner Network Advisor – 2012-2016
Languages
· Fluent in English, Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish.
Work permits
· EU/EEA Work Permit
Humanitarian Emergencies –
Field Experience
- Ghana Floods(2007)
- Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (2008)
- Hurricane Ike in Texas (2008)
- Sichuan Earthquake (2008)
- Pandemic Outbreak (2009)
- West Sumatra Earthquake (2009)
- Haiti Earthquake (2010)
- Japan Earthquake/Tsunami (2011)
- Horn of Africa Famine (2011)
- Philippine’s Typhoons (2012 and 2013)
- West Africa Ebola Outbreak (2014-2015)
- European Refugee Crisis (2015)
- Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico (2017).
- Cyclone Idai in Mozambique (2019)
References
References available upon request