Preceded by Kaj Leo Johannesen Political party Union Party Party Union Party | Preceded by Karsten Hansen Spouse(s) Rakul Nielsen Succeeded by Magni Laksáfoss | |
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Born 16 April 1972 (age 44)
Vestmanna, Faroe Islands ( 1972-04-16 ) | ||
Bárður á Steig Nielsen (born 16 April 1972 in Vestmanna) is a Faroese politician and businessman. He has been the leader of the Union Party since 24 October 2015. He is also goalkeeper of the VÍF handball team and a former handball player of the Faroe Islands national team.
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Education and business career
Bárður á Steig Nielsen has finished the first part of a Danish HD education in Management accounting from Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences and has taken some of the subjects of the Merkonom education from Føroya Handilsskúli.
He started his business career as an employee in the accountancy firm Rasmussen og Weihe in Tórshavn 1993–2000. From 2001 to 2004 he was employed as the chief Accountant at the Kollafjord Pelagic in Kollafjørður. In 2007 he left his position as the Finance Minister of the Faroe Islands in order to become the general manager of the large scale building project SMI Stóratjørn in Hoyvík, planned by Icelandic business people. The project was never implemented because of the Financial crisis of 2007–08, á Steig Nielsen was employed there until February 2009. From 2009–2010 he was the general manager of a machine shop in Hoyvík 2009–2010. From 2010 he was the CFO of the telephone company Vodafone Føroyar in Tórshavn.
He has been the board member of the Vágar Airport, Kollafjord Pelagic and of a few other trading companies in Tórshavn.
Political career
Á Steig Nielsen was elected for the Faroese parliament representing Norðurstreymoy in the period 2002–2004 and 2004–2008. He was the finance minister in the first cabinet of Jóannes Eidesgaard from 2004, but left the position in order to become the leader of the Stóra Tjørn building project, which finally didn't happen because of the financial crisis. At the 2011 elections he was reelected for the Løgting. In March 2015 he was elected vice chairman of his party and on 24 October 2015 he was elected as the chairman of the Union Party.