Board of Directors

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 Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board Remuneration Committee and Chairman 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 of them. Brynjólfur is an Alternate on the Board of Fergusson ehf. and a board member of Marinvest ehf. and ISAL hf.

Vice Chairman

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 Vice Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Board Audit Committee and a member of the Board Remuneration Committee. Herdís temporarily took over as CEO of Valitor in March but was appointed to the position on a permanent basis in November 2020. Sigurbjörg Á. Jónsdóttir, alternate Director, has temporarily taken Herdís’s seat on the Board.

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 CEO of The Icelandic Enterprise Investment Fund (Framtakssjódur Íslands - FSÍ) from 2014 and before that worked as an investment manager at FSÍ. Before joining The Icelandic Enterprise Investment Fund, Herdís worked as a senior investment analyst at Thule Investments. Herdís has served on numerous boards of directors, e.g. as the Chairman of VÍS hf., Chairman of Icelandic Group, Vice-Chairman of Promens and as a board member of Invent Farma, Medicopack A/S, Icelandair Group and Copeinca AS. Herdís is also a member of Exedra. Today, Herdís is a board member at The Icelandic-Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Director

Gunnar Sturluson

Gunnar was born in 1967. He was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 9 August 2019. He is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Gunnar is a member of the Board Credit Committee and was also appointed to the Board Audit Committee in May 2020, which he briefly chaired following Herdís D. Fjeldsted’s interim appointment as CEO of Valitor and subsequent absence from Board activities.

Gunnar graduated as Cand. Jur from the University of Iceland in 1992, gained an LL.M. degree in Law from the University in Amsterdam in 1995 and received a license to practice before the District Court in Iceland in 1993 and before the Supreme Court in 1999.

Gunnar practiced law at the law firm Málflutningsskrifstofan in 1992-1999 and became partner in 1995. He joined Logos Legal Services in 2000 as a partner and was managing partner in 2001-2013. Gunnar lectured in competition law in 1995-2007 at the University of Iceland, Faculty of Law.

Gunnar has held various directorships, including the board of directors at Gamma hf. in 2017-2019, chairman of the board of directors of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) 2016-2017, director at the Nordic Arbitration Center, president of the International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations, chairman of the board of directors of the Icelandic Dance Company 2013-2016 and was voted by the Icelandic parliament to serve on the National Electoral Commission in 2013-2017.

Director

Liv Fiksdahl

Liv was born in 1965. She was first elected as a Director at Arion Bank’s Annual General Meeting on 20 March 2019. She is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Liv is a member of the Board Remuneration Committee and chairs the Board Tech Committee, which was setup in December 2020.

Liv holds a degree in finance and management from Trondheim Business School (today NTNU) in 1986. In 2018, Liv completed programs at Stanford University in big data, strategic decisions and analysis, and the innovative technology leader. She has also completed an advanced management program for executives in management, innovation and technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Liv is currently a president (associated) within Financial Services at Capgemini Invent, Norway and services on the boards of Scandinavian Airlines SAS AB, Posten Norge AS and Intrum AB. Liv has held various senior roles at DNB and was part of the executive management team for 10 years, and her most recent role was as the Group EVP, CIO/COO, for IT & Operations. Liv has broad experience from DNB, and has held different positions within the bank. Before DNB she had key account roles for the corporate clients within Danske Bank/Fokus Bank, and Svenska Handelsbanken. Liv has served on numerous boards, including BankAxept, Sparebankforeningen, Doorstep, Finans Norge and Trondheim Kommune Bystyret.

Director

Paul Horner

Paul was born in 1962. He was first elected as a Director at a shareholders’ meeting on 9 August 2019. He is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Paul was appointed to the Board Credit Committee in May 2020 and has chaired the Board Risk Committee since October 2020.

Paul graduated with M.A. Honours in music from the University of Oxford in 1983 and is an associate of the UK Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Paul held various executive and risk management roles at Barclays PLC between 1988 and 2003. In 2003 Paul joined The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and served as an executive and senior manager of Royal Bank of Scotland PLC. He also held various senior risk and general management roles until June 2019.

In 2012 to 2017, Paul was the chief risk officer of Coutts & Co Ltd. and CEO of Coutts & Co Ltd, Zurich, in 2016-2017. Paul was Director of Risk at Ulster Bank DAC, Dublin, and is presently a non-executive director at Allied Irish Banks in London and Coutts & Co Ltd. in Zurich.

Director

Renier Lemmens

Renier was born in 1964. He was first elected as a Director at Arion Bank’s Annual General Meeting on 20 March 2019. He is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Renier has chaired the Board Audit Committee since October 2020, and is a member of the Board Risk Committee and the Board Tech Committee. Renier is also member of the board of directors of Arion Bank’s subsidiary Valitor and chairman of the board risk and monitoring committee at Valitor.

Renier has an MBA from INSEAD and an MSc in computer science from Delft University of Technology.

Renier is currently professor of fintech and innovation at the London Institute of Banking and Finance and the chairman of the board of TransferGo and Divido. Renier previously worked as CEO of Viadeo SA, was partner at Ramphastos Investments, CEO EMEA at PayPal, CEO of Amodo Consumer Finance, COO of international retail & commercial banking at Barclays Bank, consumer finance officer at GE Capital and a partner at McKinsey & Company. Renier has also served on numerous boards, including Revolut, Zenith Bank Ltd., Novum Bank Ltd. as chairman, Antenna Company Ltd., Robin Mobile BV, VoiceTrust BV, Krefima NV as chairman, Arenda BV as chairman, ZA Life Assurance NV, First Caribbean International Bank and chairman and CEO of Budapest Bank.

Director

Steinunn Kristín Thórdardóttir

Steinunn was born in 1972. She was first elected as a Director at Arion Bank’s shareholders’ meeting on 30 November 2017. She is not a shareholder of Arion Bank and is an independent Director. Steinunn is a member of the Board Risk Committee, which she chaired until October 2020.

Steinunn has a Master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird, Arizona and a BA in international business and politics from University of South Carolina.

Steinunn was previously a partner and CEO of Beringer Finance Norway and global head of food and seafood. She founded Akton AS, a management consulting company in Norway in 2010 where she worked as a managing director until 2015. Steinunn 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 has previously held several Directorships in Europe and was a board member of the Icelandic State Financial Investment (ISFI). 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 Norwegian-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce. Steinunn is a member of the nomination committee of Síminn.