The following candidates, listed in alphabetical order, have declared their candidacy for the Board of Directors of Icelandair Group at the virtual Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2022:
Guðmundur Hafsteinsson; ID no. 290875-3319
John F. Thomas; ID no. 250359-3409
Matthew Evans; ID no. 061086-5289
Nina Jonsson; ID no. 100567-3189
Svafa Grönfeldt; ID no. 290365-3769
Guðmundur Hafsteinsson
Guðmundur Hafsteinsson is an investor and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Fractal 5, a startup focusing on helping people living a better social life through technology. He was the Head of Product for Google Assistant at Google, a position he held from 2014 to 2019. He joined Google in 2014 subsequent to the merger of Google and Emu, a chat based virtual assistant start-up he founded in 2012. Prior to the founding of Emu, he was VP Product at Siri, and stayed on after the acquisition by Apple through the launch of Siri on iPhone. Prior to Siri/Apple, Guðmundur was a Senior Product Manager at Google, where he managed the initial launches of Google Maps for mobile and Google Voice Search. Guðmundur holds an MBA degree from MIT and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iceland. Guðmundur joined Icelandair Group’s Board of Directors in March 2018. He holds 8,555,555 shares in the Company. He has no interest links with the Company’s main customers, competitors or major shareholders.
John F. Thomas
John F. Thomas is the owner and CEO of Waltzing Matilda Aviation LLC, a jet charter and aircraft management company based in Boston that he founded in 2008. In 2016-2017, Mr. Thomas was Group Executive at Virgin Australia Airlines where he led a financial turnaround as CEO of a AU$ 4.0bn (appr. USD 3bn) full-service airline with over 6,000 employees and 125 aircraft, and from 1990-2016 he was with the global strategy consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting, as a Managing Director/Senior Partner. From 1995 he created and led L.E.K’s Global Aviation Practice for over 20 years. He also sits on the Board of SkyService Inc. the largest corporate aviation provider in Canada where he also Chairs its Health and Safety committee. He continues to provide advisory work to the global airline industry. Mr. Thomas holds an MBA degree from Macquarie University Graduate School of Business (which included 9 months at the MBA program at INSEAD) and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of New South Wales. He joined the Board of Icelandair Group on 6 March 2020. He holds 2,941,900 shares in the Company and subscription rights for 452,600 shares. He has no interest links with the Company’s main customers, competitors or major shareholders.
Matthew Evans
Matthew Evans joined Bain Capital Credit in 2009 where he is currently a Managing Director overseeing investments in the Aviation, Aerospace & Defense and Industrial sectors. He sits on a number of portfolio company boards and has led the development of several external partnerships and joint ventures within the aviation sector. Since mid-2020, Bain Capital has been the sole owner of Virgin Australia, the second largest airline in Australia. Mr. Evans received a B.A. Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Yale University. Matthew joined Icelandair Group’s Board of Directors in July 2021. He neither holds shares nor share options in the Company. He has no interest links with the Company’s main customers or competitors. However, he is a representative of the Company’s largest shareholder.
Nina Jonsson
Nina Jonsson (Jónína Ósk Sigurðardóttir), is currently active as an advisor to the global airline industry's executive teams and as a board member. In addition to her role as Senior Advisor with Plane View Partners, Ms. Jonsson is the Chairman of FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, a Canadian aircraft data-streaming technology leader. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of Waltzing Matilda Aviation, a Boston based operator launching a new ESGfocused airline, and Houston based Genesis Park, a private equity firm specializing in the SPAC market. Between 2015 and 2017, she held the role of Senior Vice President Group Fleet at Air FranceKLM Group where she was responsible for group-wide fleet strategy, aircraft sourcing, leasing and sales. Previously, Ms. Jonsson held a number of other executive positions within the aviation industry including Fleet Management Officer at the Bristow Group (2012-15), Director Fleet Planning at United Airlines (2006-2011) and Director Fleet Management at US Airways (2002-2005). Ms. Jonsson holds an MBA degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.Sc. degree in Air Transport Management from the University of New Haven. Nina joined Icelandair Group’s Board of Directors in March 2020. She is a dual citizen of Iceland and the US. She neither holds shares nor share options in the Company. She has no interest links with the Company’s main customers, competitors or major shareholders.
Svafa Grönfeldt
Svafa Grönfeldt is a Professor of Practice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a founding member of MIT’s newest innovation accelerator DesignX focused on the design and development of technology- and service-based ventures created at MIT. Svafa is the co-founder of The MET fund, a Cambridge based seed investment fund. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Icelandair Group since 2019, Board of Directors of Össur since 2008 and Marel since 2021. Previous positions include executive leadership positions at two global life science companies where she served as Chief Organizational Development Officer of Alvogen and Deputy to the CEO of Actavis Group. Her executive career has been focused on organizational design for high growth companies, strategy implementation, service process design for operational improvement and performance tracking. She is a former President of Reykjavik University. Svafa joined Icelandair Group’s Board of Directors in March 2019. She holds 10,833,334 shares in the Company and subscription rights for 1,666,666 shares. She has no interest links with the Company’s main customers, competitors or major shareholders.
It is the conclusion of the Board of Directors of Icelandair Group that all the candidates are independent of the Company and its management. Furthermore, all the candidates are independent of significant shareholders except for Matthew Evans who is a representative of the Company’s largest shareholder.
According to the Company’s Articles of Association the Annual General Meeting elects five members to the Board of Directors. As five individuals have declared candidacy, these candidates will be elected to the Board of Directors without ballot at the meeting.
Candidates to the Nomination Committee
The following candidates have declared candidacy to the Nomination Committee of Icelandair Group at the Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2022.
Helga Árnadóttir; ID.no.120371-3479
Hjörleifur Pálsson; ID.no 281163-4269
According to the Company’s Articles of Association the Annual General Meeting elects two members to the Nomination Committee. As two individuals have declared candidacy, these candidates will be elected to the Nomination Committee without ballot at the meeting.
The Board of Directors has decided that Icelandair Group‘s Annual General Meeting on 3 March 2022 will be held electronically, cf. Article 4.6 of the Company‘s Articles of Association. Shareholders who intend to participate electronically at the AGM shall register no later than at 4 pm on Sunday 27 February 2022 at the following website: www.icelandairgroup.com/agm
Further information:
Ari Guðjónsson, General Counsel
e-mail: ari@icelandairgroup.is
