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Biography
Benedikt Jóhannesson (born May 4, 1955) is an Icelandic publisher, businessman and politician. He is the founder and chairman of Viðreisn. He has been serving as Minister of finance of Iceland since 11 January 2017.
Benedikt is the CEO of publishing company Heimur, which he also owns 73.5% of the shares in. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and Mathematics from Florida State University. Since 1983 he has been running the consulting company Talnakönnun (Data Analysis) and since 2000 the publishing company Heimur. He has been a board member of some of Iceland's largest companies and published a collection of short stories. He is the publisher of a weekly newsletter on Icelandic business and economics called Iceland Review.
In June 2014 he founded the political network Viðreisn after leaving the Independence Party. Viðreisn was founded as a political party 24 May 2016 with Benedikt as chairman.