Iða Marsibil Jónsdóttir worked as office and human resources manager at Arnarlax.

In 2018 she became president of the Vesturbyggð town council and held that position until 2021. She was then hired as managing director of Lax-Inn, an aquaculture education center in Reykjavík, and became municipal manager of Grímsnes in 2022.

Iða Marsibil has also taken a seat as an alternate member of the Althingi for the Progressive Party in the Northwest Constituency in 2022 and 2024.

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Baldur Smári Einarsson was an Independence Party representative on the Bolungarvík town council from 2006 to 2024.

In 2019 ,he was hired by Arctic Fish as a specialist in the finance department, while still sitting on the town council. He now holds the position of CFO of Arctic Fish.

Tryggvi Másson was hired as managing director of the Independence Party in 2025. He came straight from the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (SFS), where he worked on aquaculture consulting.

Róbert Róbertsson was hired as CFO of Ice Fish Farm in 2021, a company that owns and operates Fiskeldi Austfjarða. 
In December, 2025 it was announced that he had been hired as CFO of Arnarlax.

Róbert is the husband of Diljá Míst Einarsdóttir, an Independence Party member of the Althingi since 2021. Diljá was previously an aide to Guðlaugur Þór Guðlaugsson when he served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Cooperation from 2018 to 2021.

Einar K. Guðfinnsson sat in the Althingi for the Independence Party for 25 years and was Minister of Fisheries from 2005 to 2009.

Eighteen days after he stepped down as Speaker of the Althingi in December 2016, he was hired as chairman of the board of the National Association of Fish Farms. When the association’s member companies joined SFS in 2019, Einar continued lobbying for the sea cage fish farming companies within the organization.

Hallveig Ólafsdóttir worked as an economist at the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (SFS) before she was hired as a specialist in the Ministry of Industries in 2021.

She is now deputy director of the resources office, where aquaculture legislation is being drafted. Her husband worked for Arnarlax until the spring of 2024 and now serves as account manager for Arnarlax and Arctic Fish at Benchmark Genetics, which produces roe for salmon farming.

Kolbeinn Árnason was the managing director of the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners (SFS) — a lobbying organization for fishing and sea cage fish farming companies.

In 2020, he was appointed director of food safety and aquaculture in the Ministry of Industries and Innovation. He is now director of the resources office in the same ministry, where the draft bill on aquaculture legislation was written. The office handles policy areas such as resource utilization, fisheries and aquaculture.

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Jens Garðar Helgason was the leader of the Independence Party in Fjarðabyggð from 2006 and chairman of the town council from 2010 to 2018.

In 2019, he was hired as managing director of Laxar Fiskeldi, owned by the Norwegian sea cage fish farming company Måsøval Eiendom AS, and took leave from his municipal council seat.
In December 2020, Jens Garðar took on the chairmanship of the Independence Party’s finance council. A month earlier, Måsøval had bought a majority stake in Fiskeldi Austfjarða (Ice Fish Farm). The companies were merged in 2021 and later took the name Kaldvík.

Jens Garðar is now deputy chairman of the Independence Party. According to the Althingi’s register of interests, he owns Irminger Holding ehf., which holds shares in Kaldvík. The company bought shares worth about 5 million krónur in March 2023 and previously held shares worth just over 25 million krónur.

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2017 — Daníel is a town council member for the Independence Party in Ísafjörður. He is clear in his stance: heavy industry has no place in a nature reserve, which is what he says of proposals for sea cage fish farming in the Jökulfirðir fjords.

‍2019 — Daníel takes leave from his role as chairman of the Ísafjörður town council and goes to work for the Norwegian sea cage fish farming company Norway Royal Salmon, the parent company of Arctic Fish.

‍2020 — Daníel returns as chairman of the town council. The opposition is gone. He now says he does not consider it timely to ban salmon farming in the Jökulfirðir fjords. A few months later he is hired by Arctic Fish as a consultant on special projects while still sitting on the town council.

‍2022 — Hired as director of business development at Arctic Fish.

‍2025 — Hired as CEO of Arctic Fish.

‍2026 — Lays off Arctic Fish staff, saying their wages are too high.

Jóhann Guðmundsson was a director who headed the aquaculture division of the Ministry of Industries and Innovation.In the run-up to the 2019 legislation, he was in extensive communication with Arnarlax’s consultant — a former ministry employee. Among other things, Jóhann sent him a draft regulation on aquaculture several months before it was published.

It also emerged that Jóhann had the publication of the new aquaculture legislation postponed at the request of one of the sea cage fish farming companies.

Jón Þrándur Stefánsson joined the Ministry of Industries in 2018 and took part in preparing new aquaculture legislation that was passed in 2019.

At the same time, he worked for a consultancy firm owned by the chairman of the board of Arnarlax, one of the country’s largest sea cage fish farming companies.

The Icelandic National Audit Office pointed out this dual role in its 2023 report on sea cage fish farming in Iceland. The same man thus worked both on shaping public policy on aquaculture and on safeguarding the interests of a private company in the same industry — at the same time.

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