Prime Minister appoints new Governor and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland

Pursuant to Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Act on the Central Bank of Iceland, the Prime Minister has appointed Már Guðmundsson to the position of Governor of the Central Bank for a term of five years, effective August 20, 2009; and Arnór Sighvatsson to the position of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank for a term of four years, effective July 1, 2009. The term of appointment for the Deputy Governor is determined pursuant to Paragraph 1 of Temporary Provision III of Act no. 26/2009.

Már Guðmundsson received a BA in economics from the University of Essex and studied economics and mathematics at the University of Gothenburg. He has a M.Ph. degree in economics from Cambridge University, where pursued doctoral study as well. Since 2004, Már has served as Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to that, he was employed by the Central Bank of Iceland for some two decades, including over ten years as Chief Economist. Már served as economic advisor to the Minister of Finance from 1988-1991. He has written a number of papers and articles on monetary and exchange rate affairs and related topics.

Arnór Sighvatsson graduated from the University of Iceland with a BA in history and philosophy and pursued graduate study in the United States, where he received an MA and a PhD in economics from the Northern Illinois University. He was employed by Statistics Iceland concurrent with his undergraduate studies and taught at Northern Illinois University while pursuing his doctoral degree. He joined the Central Bank of Iceland in 1990 and became Chief Economist and Director of the Economics Department in 2004. He was appointed interim Deputy Governor of the Bank in 2009. From 1993-1995, Arnór served as assistant to the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund in the Fund’s Nordic Office. He has written numerous articles and scholarly papers on monetary and exchange rate matters.  

The interim Governor of the Central Bank, Svein Harald Øygard, will continue in that position until Már Guðmundsson takes over on August 20.