ABOUT GUNNLAUGUR
Responsibility and Learning
I am the CEO of The Fintech Cluster, a fintech hub in Reykjavik, Iceland, as well as Fronkensteen ehf, a tech company, which is working on a solution for problems in social media. I am one of the founders of Veriate, a discussion system for media and web sites. I am also a shareholder and board member in Mostly Human Entertainment ehf, a theatre company.
I have given many talks and appeared in media, discussing matters ranging from economics, philosophy and business to personal responsibility, ethics and creativity.
I wrote Ábyrgðarkver (English: A Little Book on Responsibility), a book on personal responsibility in light of the banking crisis of 2008, published in 2012 and I have written many articles on social issues. I have won two awards for my writing, the Freedom prize, awarded by the Young Independents Union, and the honorary award of the Icelandic Libertarian Society.
As an advisor, I have worked for diverse companies, from energy to real estate to finance. I have served on the boards of several companies, often dealing with and resolving tough situations, e.g. in the wake of the extraordinary financial crisis of 2008 in which the entire banking system of Iceland had fallen.
I have real world experience in many disciplines and do therefore intuitively and systematically deal with complex matters that combine challenges in finance, marketing, negotiation, law, public relations, creativity, technology and business strategy.
I am an abstract thinker, striving to understand the underlying forces and laws of the world. I strongly believe that if the world of ideas and the real world collide, it is probably the world of ideas that needs to adapt. At the same time, we must act on what we think we know and heroically take on the world, with an eagerness to learn and grow from our experience.
CONSULTING
Having previously built a financial consulting company, I have recently worked on projects with a wider scope, building on my varied experience and studies. Often what is needed is cross-discipline competence, even if what needs to be done is in a particular field. My work combines finance, marketing, negotiation, law, public relations, creativity, technology and business strategy. I take on responsibilities as a board member in some cases. Contact me if you have questions or thoughts.
SPEAKING
I like to talk about big ideas and interesting stories. I used to coach speakers and I try to make my own talks intellectually satisfying as well as entertaining. I discuss matters ranging from economics, philosophy and business to personal responsibility, ethics and creativity.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I'm CEO of the Fintech Cluster, a fintech hub in Reykjavík, as well as Fronkensteen ehf., a technology company that is working on its own product. I like to stay in touch with interesting companies and entrepreneurs and I have founded a few companies myself. Get in touch by e-mail below.
RESPONSIBILITY
I wrote Ábyrgðarkver (English: A Little Book on Responsibility), a book on personal responsibility in light of the banking crisis of 2008, published in 2012. It was a response to what I believed was a knee-jerk reaction to the crash, the erroneous conclusion that freedom was the problem. On the contrary, I showed that the financial bubble, internationally and especially in Iceland had been inflated by government sponsorship and responsibility for the banking system, disconnecting what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls 'skin in the game' and creating a moral hazard as banks and their lenders behaved differently than they would have without believing in government bailouts. The system disconnected personal responsibility.
The book went further and argued that personal responsibility was important in our journey through life, as we learn from experience, attempt to think clearly and as well as learning from others. In this regard, I have recently found a kindred spirit in Jordan B. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, who has reached great fame. I had the initiative of inviting him to speak at Iceland and spread his wisdom. We sold out two events.
Contact me and see if we can work together.
