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- One minute interview
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What are you reading?
Skúli Fógeti (Skúli the Bailiff) by Þórunn Jarla Valdimarsdóttir. I have just finished reading a book about the centenary of Icelandic sovereignty. I often read books about the times between 1700 and 1900.
What is your favourite tool at work?
Probably my phone, but I’m not sure. I told the staff here at the ministry when I started work that I had brought a thermometer and a yardstick. If someone complains it is too cold, I show them the thermometer which perhaps shows 22 degrees. And I say: Put your jumper on! Or if someone complains the office is too small, I fetch the yardstick and shows how little space there is – or how much.
What did you want to become as a child?
I wanted to become an electrician. My passion is machines and contraptions.
What is your hidden talent?
I sing in the Karlakór Kópavogs male choir, but that is perhaps no hidden talent since we sometimes perform in public. I love singing. My hidden talent is maybe the fact that I fix my own cars, changing the brakes and such.
- Facts about Gissur
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Born: Reykjavik 1958, grew up in the Kópavogur neighbourhood.
Education: MA Public Administration at the University of Iceland.
Career: Has worked in public administration for more than 30 years; first 10 years with the fisheries administration, later as the head of the Directorate of Labour Vinnumálastofnun for 21 years. Before this he worked with journalism.
Interests: Gissur’s great interest is national science, history and geography. He has travelled extensively around Iceland, goes hunting and has shot reindeer, grouse and geese, but has not had time to take up fly-fishing. If he goes fishing, he uses a net to catch a lot in one go.
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Work Research Institute
OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University,
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