To u r i s m , C u lt u r e
and
Business
I s su e 46 • 2022
“People of Iceland need to reap the benefits of their Energy resources”
Interview with Iceland’s New National Energy Director-General, Halla Hrund Logadóttir
N
ew Director-General of Iceland’s National Energy Authority, Halla Hrund Logadóttir, yearns to work for Iceland, the Arctic and the World in all its diversity at this watershed moment in history of Energy Change. She is fortyone, born 1981 and learnt her work ethics at her grandparent’s farm at Hörglandskot, Kirkjubæjarklaustur – Church-FarmCloister. She took the experience to her studies in Reykjavík and graduated from the Women’s College in 2001 and gained a degree in Political Sciences from University of Iceland in 2005. Halla Hrund then went abroad to work in the Icelandic Embassy in Brussels. In 2009, she was on her way to Togo, Africa and, from there, back to Europe to the OECD in Paris. She then crossed the English Channel to study at London School of Economics before returning back home to Iceland in 2013 to the University of Reykjavík where she founded the Iceland School of Energy.
32
At that point in time, the Arctic Circle Assembly was opening new horizons, so Halla Hrund went to Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts to master Climate Change in the Arctic. “Climate Change in the Arctic is knocking at our doors. The effect of Climate Warming on people and the environment is escalating,” says Halla Hrund in an interview with the Icelandic Times. She is married to Kristján Freyr Kristjánsson, a company director, and they have two daughters, Hildur Kristín and Saga Friðgerður. Halla Hrund became Director-General of the National Energy Authority in June 2021. The first months have been dedicated to forming its future vision and organization chart.
Hörglandskot
Halla Hrund is the daughter of Logi Ragnarsson [1960] and Jóhanna Steingrímsdóttir [1961]. Up to the age of 20, she spent practically every summer at Hörglandskot by Kirkjubæjarklaustur
www.icelandictimes.com
in the south of Iceland where her grandparents, Steingrímur Lárusson [1933-2014] and Anna Hildur Árnadóttir [1938-2018] ran a prize-winning farm. Her grandfather was a respected leader; district chief and staunch member of the Independent Party. “There was plenty to do at the farm, where I learnt to appreciate nature as well as horses, cows, sheep, and hay-making and developed a sense for the practical while getting the harvest into barn,” Halla Hrund says. After graduation, she spent three years in the Icelandic Embassy in Brussels introducing Iceland’s art and culture. In Togo, in West Africa, she taught university students and helped the local farmers. “I learnt to appreciate the importance of infrastructure. There were constant electrical breakdowns and darkness in Togo, a former French colony. However, going over the border to Ghana, the former British colony, there were no such problems as the infrastructure had been developed.”
