Ragnar Birgisson: Chief Executive Officer

Icelandic Water Holdings ehf Chief Executive Officer, Ragnar Birgisson, has more than three decades of marketing, finance and bottling industry expertise. He is known for his ability to build and manage an organization to guarantee successful market growth.

In his role with Icelandic Glacial, Birgisson is responsible for fueling the worldwide distribution of Icelandic Glacial super-premium spring water and taking advantage of the growing interest in the super-premium water category within a world market. He also oversees the current day-to-day operations of the bottling facility located in Thorlákshöfn, Iceland.

Most recently, Birgisson has been developing designs and plans for a new factory to be built on company land at the source of the Ölfus Spring that produces Icelandic Glacial’s super-premium spring water.

The new plant will be state-of-the-art, with high-speed lines that increase the company's capacity substantially. The factory building, including offices, will be 6.600 m2 (70,000 sq. feet) in size.

Icelandic Glacial has quickly become a top brand in the exploding category of super-premium bottled water.  Birgisson has lent an experienced hand during this pivotal period in the growth of the Icelandic Glacial brand.

Prior to joining Icelandic Glacial, Birgisson worked for 10 years in the beverage industry and served as Managing Director of Sana ehf, an Icelandic brewery, which subsequently merged with Sanitas ehf, a bottler and the franchise holder for Pepsi Co. and 7-UP. While serving as Managing Director at Sanitas ehf, he was the first to launch diet drinks and cans in the Icelandic market. During his tenure with Sanitas ehf, Pepsi cola’s market share in Iceland tripled. At the time when strong beer was first allowed in Iceland, Birgisson also built a new brewery and subsequently captured the majority of the Icelandic beer market.

Birgisson later served as owner and Managing Director for Opal ehf, an Icelandic confectionary company. From 1996 to 2000, he was CEO of Skifan ehf, the largest entertainment (film, music and video games) company in Iceland. In 2000, Skifan ehf merged with Northern Light Communications hf (NLC) to form the biggest entertainment and media company in Iceland, and for the next three years, Birgisson served as COO of the newly merged company while continuing to serve as CEO of Skífan ehf.

Late in 2003, Skífan ehf was de-merged from it's mother company, and Birgisson continued on as CEO of Skífan ehf, which in the meantime had acquired a large entertainment retail chain and built the biggest and most successful state-of-the-art cinemas in Iceland.

Birgisson holds a degree in economics from the University of Iceland and an MBA with a specialty in marketing and finance from the London Business School.