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Professional Experiences

NetHope Inc.
Humanitarian Advisor

2019-

  • Advisor on humanitarian preparedness and response and blockchain for a consortium of 57 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

·       US Green Card Holder, 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).

References

References available upon request