Senior Advisor on Women’s Leadership and co-lead of the Generation Equality Action Coalitions, UN Women Chair of the Reykjavík Global Forum Member of the Board of Women Political Leaders (WPL)

Before joining UN Women in New York, Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir served full time as the Chair of the ExecutiveBoard of the Women Political Leaders (WPL). She is the Chair of the Reykjavík Global Forum that takes place inIceland every year and gathers 500 women leaders from nearly 100 countries to discuss and share ideas andsolutions on how to further advance society, increase equality between women and men and promote and positivelydevelop the number of women in leadership positions. Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir was active in Icelandic politics formany years, both in the national Parliament and local government. She is the former Chair of the Foreign AffairsCommittee in the Parliament and former Minister of the Interior in Iceland. Before getting elected to Parliament, shewas the Mayor of Reykjavík, the President of the City Council and chaired several committees and organizations forthe City of Reykjavík. She is also the former Vice Chair of the Independence Party in Iceland; the former deputySecretary General of the party and the former Secretary General of its Parliamentary Group. She obtained a Bachelorof Arts in Political Science from the University of Iceland in 1991 and later a Master of Science in International andEuropean Politics from the University of Edinburgh (1993).