Professional Career

Halldór Guðmundsson was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1956, brought up in Germany and studied in Denmark. He has worked as a publisher for Mál og menning, at that time Iceland’s largest publisher, written several books, the most well known being a biography of the Icelandic Nobel prize laureate, Halldór Laxness, and been CEO of Harpa, the concert hall and conference center in Reykjavík. He has been the project manager for a Guest of Honour country at the Frankfurt book-fair twice; Iceland (2011), and Norway (2019).

Experience

Publishing
Director of Mál og menning, Iceland‘s largest publishing house, and later Edda, 1984-2003
Board member of Forlagið, Iceland‘s leading publisher in the 21st century, from 2007, chairman from 2019.

Editor of Skírnir, the biannual journal of The Icelandic Literary Society, 2006-2013.

Cultural management
Director of Harpa, Reykjavík‘s internationally known concert house and conference center, 2012-2017
Board Member of the Icelandic Literary Festival, from 1987-2023.
Board Member of the Reykjavík Arts Festival 2000-2006.
Board Member of The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service from 2012-2013.
Board Member of the National Theatre 2007-2012, Chairman of the Board from 2019.
Board Member of Snorrastofa, Cultural and Medieval Centre in Reykholt, from 2022.
Board Member of the Reykjavík Big Band, from 2022.

Project management
Director of “Sagenhaftes Island“, Iceland as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2011
Project manager of “The Dream We Carry / Der Traum in uns“, Norway as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019. The project was Norway‘s largest cultural export project ever.
Both were considered extremely successful, and the Norwegian project did set a new record for media attention in Germany, with 15.000 mentions of “Gastland Norwegen“ in German language media in October 2019.

Halldór is married to Anna Vilborg Dyrset and they have five children.