Iceland

Permanent Representative of Iceland to the UN

CURRICULUM VITAE AND DIPLOMATIC CAREER

Thorsteinn Ingolfsson, the new Permanent Representative of Iceland to  the United Nations, presented his credentials 11 September to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Ingolfsson was, from 1994, his  country's Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and to the Western European Union.

From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Ingolfsson served as his country's Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1987, Mr. Ingolfsson became Director of the Defence Department of the Foreign Ministry and Icelandic Chairman of the  Icelandic-American Defense Council.

Mr. Ingolfsson first joined the foreign service in 1971 as First  Secretary addressing international and political affairs. In 1973 he became First Secretary and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Icelandic Embassy in  Washington, D.C., remaining in that post until 1978.

Between January and April of 1978, he worked as Counsellor to that Embassy when he was reposted as Chief of the Foreign Ministry's Division of Administration, Budgeting and Consular Affairs. He remained in that job until  1985, when he moved to Geneva to be his Government's representative to  international organizations there.

Mr. Ingolfsson graduated from the Commercial College of Iceland in 1965  and, in 1971, he received his candidatus juris from the University of Iceland.

Born in December 1944 in Reykjavik, Iceland, Mr. ingolfsson is married.