Tómas Ingi Olrich (born 13 February 1943) is an

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

ic politician and former minister and

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Early life and education

Tómas was born in

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

and educated at the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

, where he studied French and history, and the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

, where he earned a licentiate and a master's degree in modern languages.

Career

He taught at

Akureyri Junior College The Akureyri Junior College ( , regionally also ; ) is an Icelandic gymnasium (academic secondary school). It is one of the oldest educational institutions in Iceland. The Menntaskólinn á Akureyri traces its roots to the ancient school in H ...

from 1970 to 1991, including ten years as assistant schoolmaster. During some of that time he was also manager of the Hotel Edda in Akureyri (1971–1973) and editor of the website of the Independence Party, ''Íslendingur'' (1984–1985). He served in the Icelandic parliament,

Alþingi The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what la ...

, from 1991 to 2003 representing Northeastern and in 2003 representing the new constituency of

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

, for the Independence Party. During this time he was twice part of the Icelandic delegation to the

NATO Parliamentary Assembly The NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It consists of delegates from the parliaments of the 32 NATO member countries as well as from associate ...

, in 1991–1993 and, as chairman, in 1999–2002, chaired the Icelandic delegation to the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

in 1993–1995, and was Iceland's representative to the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

in 1995. He then served as

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

from 2 March 2002 to 31 December 2003. After resigning his parliamentary seat, he became ambassador to France, serving from 2005 until the end of 2009. Among his other positions, Tómas chaired the planning committee for the

University of Akureyri The University of Akureyri ( , regionally also ) was founded in 1987 in the town of Akureyri in the northeastern part of Iceland. It is today a school of Humanities and Social science, and a school of Health, Business and Natural science. Over 280 ...

from 1985 to 1987 and was on the board of governors from 1988 to 1990, and from 1999 to 2002 was on the permanent committee of the

Arctic Council The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous people of the Arctic region. At present, eight countries exercise sovereignty over the lands within the Arctic ...

. He was vice president of the Icelandic Tourist Board from 1993 to 1999 and then became its chairman.

Private life

Tómas has been married twice, to Hjördís Daníelsdóttir in 1964 and to Nína Þórðardóttir in 1981. He has two daughters from his first marriage, and Nína has two daughters from a previous marriage.

References

External links

Biography of Tómas Ingi Olrich
at

1943 births Living people Education ministers of Iceland Government ministers of Iceland Members of the Althing Ambassadors of Iceland to France {{Iceland-politician-stub