Jon Olafsson: Chairman & Founder

Icelandic Water Holdings, ehf, Chairman & Founder, Jon Olafsson has spent the last 30 years building successful companies from the ground up and transforming them into industry leaders. Best known as the chair of Northern Lights Communications — Iceland’s premier integrated media, communications and entertainment company Olafsson has served as a critical player on the executive boards of more than 15 companies across multiple sectors including investment banking, entertainment, media, construction and land development.

Founded together with son Kristjan, Icelandic Water Holdings, ehf, has benefited from the same Olafsson drive and cool-headed intensity that has become the family’s hallmark. The Icelandic Glacial brand – made from exclusive access to one of the world’s naturally purest waters — has quickly become a top brand in the exploding category of super-premium bottled waters, thanks to its industry leading environmental credentials and exceptional purity. His steady leadership and impressive strategic decision-making has been key to the company as it grows to meet the increasing consumer demand.

BACKGROUND

A dynamic entrepreneur, Olafsson has forged an impressive reputation in the music, entertainment and media industry, creating an outstanding platform for a host of high profile and lucrative business initiatives.

Olafsson started to build his remarkable media and broadcasting portfolio when he founded Skifan, which became the dominant music recording and distribution company in Iceland with distributing rights for EMI-Virgin, Sony, Universal, BMG and Warner Music as well as internationally acclaimed home video and cinema production companies Columbia Pictures, Miramax and 20^th Century Fox.

Olafsson, started his portfolio of independent radio stations by co-founding the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), before moving into television in 1990, when he took over the Icelandic Television Corporation (ITC), merging them both in 1992. Olafsson led the new merged entity as chairman and CEO and held numerous additional roles on the corporation’s board.

Motivated and talented, Olafsson was also the key figure in building the communications company TAL — the second GSM operator in Iceland. He accomplished this in 1992 through a pivotal partnership with the well-known, U.S. based company, Western Wireless.

In 1999, Olafsson masterminded the monumental merger, of all of his companies (Skifan and IBC) under one umbrella to form Northern Lights Communications, Inc. (NLC) – the premier integrated media, communications and entertainment company in Iceland. Olafsson served as chairman of NLC until November 2003 when he sold everything and stepped down to co-found Icelandic Water Holdings, ehf, with his son in 2004.