Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (1943– )

President of Iceland from 1996. He took over from Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, who had been president since 1980.

Ólafur was born in Ísafjördur in northwestern Iceland. He studied economics and political science at Manchester University, graduating with a BA in 1965 and with a PhD in 1970. He became a professor in political science at the University of Iceland in 1973.

He was first elected to parliament as a People's Alliance Party representative for Reykjavik in 1978, and was chairman of the parliamentary group of the party 1980–83 and leader of the party 1987–95. He was finance minister 1988–91 and was re-elected to parliament in 1991 and again in 1995.

Ólafur was chairman and then president of the International Association of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) 1984–90. He accepted the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize on behalf of the association in 1987.