Árni Þór Sigurðsson

Árni Þór Sigurðsson (born 30 July 1960 in Reykjavik) is an Icelandic Ambassador. Since May 1st 2015 he is Ambassador for the Arctic (Senior Arctic Official), representing Iceland in the Arctic Council. He was member of parliament of the Althing, the Icelandic parliament 2007-2014, for the Left-Green Movement. He was Deputy Speaker of the Althing from 2009-2010 and again 2012-2013. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Althingi Feb. 2009 - April 2013. Chairman of the Parliamentary Delegation to EFTA/EEA 2009-2013. Co-Chairman of the Iceland-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee. He was a delegate to the Nordic Council 2010-2013 and Chairman of the Nordic Council's Standing Committee of Culture and Education. Árni Þór held a number of Parliamentary Committee posts, incl. on budget and finance, economy, environment, constitutional affairs, procedural affairs etc. He was chair, vicechair and acting chair of the Parliamentary Group 2009-2012.

Prior to his parliamentary career, Árni Þór was a City Councillor in Reykjavik for 13 years, responsible for pre-schools (1994-1998), city planning and construction (1999-2002) and transport and environment (2002-2006) and Chairman of the Board of the Port of Reykjavik (1994-2006). He was vicechair of the Eurocities Mobility Forum 2002-2006 and delegate to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe 2003-2008.

Árni Þór has a Master-degree in Economics and Russian from the University of Oslo, Norway and studied Russian at the universities in Stockholm, Sweden, and Moscow, Russia. He also has a diploma in Public Administration from the University of Iceland and a Master-degree in International Relations.