Kristján Loftsson (born 17 March 1943) is an Icelandic businessman and a

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

. He has been the CEO of the

commercial whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

and investment company Hvalur hf. since 1974 and is, along with his sister, its largest shareholder. He began his whaling career in 1956 at the age of 13 as a scout on his father's ship. In 1974, he took over as CEO of Hvalur hf., following the death of his father.

Personal life

Kristján was born in

Hafnarfjörður Hafnarfjörður, officially Hafnarfjarðarkaupstaður, is a port town and municipality in Iceland, located about south of Reykjavík. The municipality consists of two non-contiguous areas in the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital Region, on the s ...

, Iceland, to Loftur Bjarnason and Sólveig Sveinbjarnardóttir. He is named after his uncle Kristján Bjarnason who was killed in the sinking of SS ''Hekla'' by German submarine ''U-564'' in 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loftsson, Kristjan 1943 births Living people Kristjan Loftsson People in whaling