Bárður á Steig Nielsen

Bárður á Steig Nielsen (born 16 April 1972) is a Faroese politician and businessman who serves as leader of the Union Party since 2015 and as Prime Minister since 2019. He is also goalkeeper of the VÍF handball team and a former handball player of the Faroe Islands national team.[1]

Bárður á Steig Nielsen
Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 September 2019
Deputy	Jørgen Niclasen
Preceded by	Aksel V. Johannesen
Leader of the Union Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 24 October 2015
Preceded by	Kaj Leo Johannesen
Minister of Finance
In office 3 February 2004 – 9 May 2007
Preceded by	Karsten Hansen
Succeeded by	Magni Laksáfoss
Personal details
Born	(1972-04-16) 16 April 1972 Vestmanna, Faroe Islands
Political party	Union Party
Spouse(s)	Rakul Nielsen

Education and business career

Bárður á Steig Nielsen has finished the first part of a Danish HD education in Management accounting from Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences and has taken some of the subjects of the Merkonom education from Føroya Handilsskúli.[2]

He started his business career as an employee in the accountancy firm Rasmussen og Weihe in Tórshavn 1993–2000. From 2001 to 2004 he was employed as the chief Accountant at the Kollafjord Pelagic in Kollafjørður.[3] In 2007 he left his position as the Finance Minister of the Faroe Islands in order to become the general manager of the large scale building project SMI Stóratjørn in Hoyvík, planned by Icelandic business people. The project was never implemented because of the financial crisis of 2007–08, á Steig Nielsen was employed there until February 2009. From 2009–2010 he was the general manager of a machine shop in Hoyvík 2009–2010. From 2010 he was the CFO of the telephone company Vodafone Føroyar in Tórshavn.[2]

He has been the board member of the Vágar Airport, Kollafjord Pelagic and of a few other trading companies in Tórshavn.[4]

Political career

á Steig Nielsen was elected for the Faroese parliament representing Norðurstreymoy in the period 2002–2004 and 2004–2008. He was the finance minister in the first cabinet of Jóannes Eidesgaard from 2004, but left the position in order to become the leader of the Stóra Tjørn building project, which finally didn't happen because of the financial crisis. At the 2011 elections he was re-elected for the Løgting. In March 2015 he was elected vice chairman of his party and on 24 October 2015 he was elected as the chairman of the Union Party.[5]

References

1. "Landsliðsmanningarnar hjá manslandsliðnum 18. juli 1964 –" (in Faroese). The Faroese Handball Federation. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
2. "Bárður Nielsen". LinkedIn. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
3. "Bárður á Steig Nielsen" (in Faroese). Løgting. 2007. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
4. "Bárður á Steig Nielsen" (in Faroese). Business-Line. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
5. Rana, Hallur av (24 October 2015). "Nú stýrir Bárður sambandsskútuni" (in Faroese). in.fo. Retrieved 25 October 2015.