Board of Directors
Chairman
Eva Cederbalk
Eva was born in 1952. She was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 23 June 2017. She is a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Eva is Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Board Credit Committee. Eva has an MSc in economics from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Eva is currently Chief Executive Officer of Cederbalk Consulting AB. She previously worked for Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB and If Skadeförsäkring AB. She was CEO of Netgiro Systems AB and SBAB Bank AB and managing director at Dial Försäkring AB. She has served on numerous boards of directors and was chairman of Klarna AB and was a director at Gimi AB and Íslandsbanki. Eva is currently a member of the board of directors of National Bank of Greece Group, Svolder and Ikano Group S.A.
Vice chairman
Brynjólfur Bjarnason
Brynjólfur was born in 1946. He was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 20 November 2014. He is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Brynjólfur is the Vice Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board Audit Committee and a member of the Board Credit Committee. Brynjólfur graduated with an MBA from the University of Minnesota in 1973 and a cand. oecon. degree in business studies from the University of Iceland in 1971.
Brynjólfur previously worked as the managing director of the Enterprise Investment Fund and as the CEO of Skipti, Síminn and Grandi hf. He has also worked as managing director of the publisher AB bókaútgáfa and was head of the economics department of VSÍ. Brynjólfur has broad experience as a director and has served on numerous boards and been chairman of several. Brynjólfur is an alternate board member of Fergusson ehf. and a board member of Marinvest ehf. and ISAL hf.
Director
Benedikt Gíslason
Benedikt was born in 1974. He was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 5 September 2018. He is not a shareholder in Arion Bank and is a dependent Director. Benedikt is a member of the Board Risk Committee and the Board Remuneration Committee. Benedikt gained a CSc in mechanical and industrial engineering from the University of Iceland in 1998.
Benedikt works as a senior consultant for Kaupthing ehf. He previously worked as a senior advisor for Iceland’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, as managing director of Investment Banking at MP Bank and he has held a variety of managerial positions at Straumur- Burdarás, including managing director of securities and later CEO. Benedikt also worked as managing director of capital markets at FL Group and at proprietary trading and capital markets at Icelandic Investment Bank (FBA), later Íslandsbanki- FBA. Benedikt was also a board member at Kaupthing and VÍS Insurance. Benedikt is on the board of Genís hf., EC Hugbúnadur ehf. and EC Software Sweden and an alternate board member of Brekkuás ehf.
Director
Herdís Dröfn Fjeldsted
Herdís was born in 1971. She was first elected as a Director at Arion Bank’s annual general meeting on 15 March 2018. She is not a shareholder in Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Herdís is a member of the Board Audit Committee and Chairman of the Board Remuneration Committee. Herdís graduated with a BSc in business administration with an emphasis on international marketing from the Technical University of Iceland in 2004 and a Master’s degree in corporate finance from Reykjavik University in 2011. Herdís is also a certified stockbroker.
Herdís was the managing director of The Icelandic Enterprise Investment Fund (EIF) from 2014. Prior to that she worked as an investment manager at the fund. Before joining EIF, Herdís worked as a senior investment analyst at Thule Investments. Herdís has served on numerous boards of directors, e.g. as the chairman of Icelandic Group and VÍS hf., vice-chairman of Promens and as a board member of Icelandair Group, Invent Farma, Medicopack A/S and Copeinca AS. Today Herdís is a board member at The Icelandic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Director
Måns Höglund
Måns was born in 1951. He was first elected as a Director at Arion Bank’s annual general meeting on 24 March 2011. He is a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Måns is Chairman of the Board Risk Committee and a member of the Board Credit Committee. He graduated with a BSc in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics in 1975.
Måns previously worked for Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) as executive director and head of corporate and structured finance and was a member of SEK’s Executive Committee. He has worked for Unibank as head of the Sweden operation and Nordea as head of private banking in Sweden as well as Swedbank where his roles included being head of the corporate division. Måns worked at Götabanken in London and Stockholm and held various positions at Hambros Bank in London. Måns has also worked as a lecturer and researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics.
Director
Steinunn Kristín Thórdardóttir
Steinunn was born in 1972. She was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 30 November 2017. She is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Steinunn has a Master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird, Arizona and a BA in international business and politics from the University of South Carolina.
Steinunn was previously a partner and CEO of Beringer Finance Norway and global head of food and seafood. In 2010, she founded Akton AS, a management consulting company in Norway, where she worked as a managing director until 2015. Steinunn previously worked at Íslandsbanki (later Glitnir) as executive director of International Corporate Credit and later as managing director and head of the bank’s UK operations. Steinunn was a board member of Silver Green AS and Silver Green TC AS in Norway, Versobank AS in Estonia, board member of the Icelandic State Financial Investment (ISFI) and alternate board member at Kredittbanken, later Glitnir Norway.
Today Steinunn is the chairman of the board of Acton Capital AS and Akton AS and a board member of Cloud Insurance AS. She is also a board member of the British-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce, vice chairman of the Norwegian-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce and a member of Exedra. Steinunn is a member of the nomination committee of Síminn.
Alternate Directors
Ólafur Örn Svansson, Supreme Court attorney, Sigurbjörg Ásta Jónsdóttir, lawyer and Thórarinn Thorgeirsson, attorney at law. Ólafur and Sigurbjörg are independent Alternate Directors and Thórarinn is a dependent Alternate Director.