BIO/3187

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ICELAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

11 September 1998


Press Release
BIO/3187


NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ICELAND PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

19980911 Biographical Note

Thorsteinn Ingolfsson, the new Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations, today presented his credentials 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.

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For information media. Not an official record.