Halla Hrund Logadóttir

Halla Hrund Logadóttir (born 12 March 1981) is an Icelandic scientist, who works as the current Director of Energy Affairs at Orkustofnun and an adjunct professor at Harvard University in the United States. She was a candidate in the 2024 Icelandic presidential election.

Early life
Halla Hrund was born in Reykjavík on 12 March 1981 to Logi Ragnarsson and Jóhanna Steingrímsdóttir. She graduated in political science at the University of Iceland in 2005 and went on to earn a master's degree in international cooperation with a focus on economics and energy from Fletcher School at Tufts University alongside a master's degree in public administration with a focus on environment and energy from the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, both universities are located in the American state of Massachusetts. She married Kristján Freyr Kristjánsson, a co-founder of the software company 50skills, and the couple went on to have two daughters.

Career
Upon her graduation in 2005, Halla Hrund worked in Brussels, Belgium on behalf of the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs for cultural affairs and later took part in an innovation and teaching project in Lomé, Togo. At the time she also worked at the OECD in Paris, France for several months. From 2011 to 2013, Halla Hrund was the director of international development and from 2013 until 2016, manager of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University. Since 2015, Halla Hrund has been working as a part-time teacher at Reykjavík University, where she teaches a course on strategic planning in the field of energy with a focus on climate issues and has also been on the board of Orkusjóð since that time. She is also the co-founder, former co-director, and current affiliate of the Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University in 2017 and has since worked there as an adjunct professor. In 2021, Halla Hrund was appointed Director of Energy Affairs at Orkustofnun, the first woman to hold that position.

Presidential campaign
On 7 April 2024, Halla Hrund announced her campaign for the 2024 Icelandic presidential election in a social media post. Halla Hrund secured ballot access on 26 April 2024 with the National Electoral Commission confirming her as an official candidate on 29 April. Halla Hrund and former Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir ranked as top contenders for the presidency in the polls between late April and mid-May. On election day, she secured 15.7% of the vote, coming in third behind Halla Tómasdóttir and Katrín.