Mentors
in the accelerator program The participating teams will receive top-Notch mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and leading industry experts.
Einar Sævarsson
Einar is a serial entrepreneur passionate about people, entertainmant, disruptive technologies and data. Einar is currently the CEO / Founder of Activity Stream, the leading analytics solution for entertainment and sports.
Einar Örn Benediktsson
Einar Örn Benediktsson is an artist and entrepreneur from Reykjavík, Iceland. He has been an important figurehead and a leading catalyst in the Icelandic art and culture scene since the late 70’s
Erdin Beshimov is a Lecturer at MIT and a Founder and Director of MIT Bootcamps. At MIT Erdin was also the founding Director of the MITx MicroMasters Program, which pioneered the model of “inverted admissions,” and the Incubation Group in the Office of Digital Learning. He co-created MIT’s first massive open online courses on entrepreneurship, which have enrolled hundreds of thousands of learners from every country in the world. Guided by the philosophy that MIT is not just a university but a global innovation community, Erdin’s focus at MIT is on building new pathways for learners worldwide to study innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. Erdin is a graduate of the MIT Sloan School of Management. For his work in entrepreneurship and contributions to student life at MIT, Erdin was awarded the Patrick J. McGovern Entrepreneurship Award, the Carol and Howard Anderson Fellowship, and the MIT Sloan Peer Recognition Award. Before returning to MIT after graduating, Erdin served as Principal at Flagship Pioneering where he focused on ventures in water, energy, and materials. Erdin also co-founded Ubiquitous Energy, a solar technologies spinout from MIT, and evaluated energy efficiency innovations at Venrock Associates. In addition to an MBA from MIT Sloan, Erdin holds an MA in Area Studies of the former Soviet Union from Harvard University, where he studied on full scholarship, and a BA (first-class honours) in Development and Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, where he was awarded the International Student Scholarship and the James O’Connell Scholarship for Peace Studies. Erdin was born in a country that no longer exists, the Soviet Union. The experience of growing up in a country on the ashes of another offered him a vision to an independent life in an uncertain world for many millions of people just like him through entrepreneurial thinking, the pursuit of knowledge, and a global mindset. His mission is to contribute to a model of the world in which there are no barriers between motivation and opportunity.
Guðrún Björk Bjarnadóttir
Guðrún Björk Bjarnadóttir er framkvæmdastjóri STEFs. Guðrún Björk er hæstaréttarlögmaður með mastersgráðu í Evrópurétti frá Stokkhólmsháskóla. Hún á að baki farsælan feril sem lögmaður hjá LOGOS lögmannsþjónustu og Samtökum atvinnulífsins. Guðrún Björk hefur einnig kennslu í lögfræði bæði við Háskóla Íslands og Háskóla Reykjavíkur og haldið fjölda erinda og fyrirlestra hjá ýmsum aðilum, hin síðustu ár aðallega á sviði höfundaréttar. Guðrún Björk situr í stjórn NCB (Nordisk Copyright Bureau) sem annast hagsmunagæslu fyrir höfunda á Norðurlöndunum vegna hljóðsetningar og eintakagerðar verka þeirra. Þá situr hún einnig í stjórn Listaháskóla Íslands.
Georg Hólm
Founding member and bass player of Sigur Ros
Halla Helgadóttir
Halla Helgadóttir, Managing Director of the Iceland Design Centre has an extensive experience as an art director and a creative administrator. Halla worked in the advertising industry for 20 years running her own company.
Helga Valfells
Helga is the Managing Partner of Crowberry Capital, She is on the board of five technology companie She is the Chair of the Icelandic Venture Capital Association
Prior to co-founding Crowberry, Helga was CEO of NSA.
She has an MBA from London Business School and a BA degree from Harvard.
Haraldur Hugosson
Haraldur Hugosson is the COO and co-founder of Genki Instruments, a startup that strives to make technology feel natural. Their first product is the wearable ring Wave, which allows musicians to easily control sound, shape effects and send commands with the motion of their hands. Previously he worked with over 100 early stage startups and founders through his work at Icelandic Startups and Startup Reykjavik.
Ólafur Arnalds
An award winning Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer
Vimala Palaniswamy the Associate Director for MIT Bootcamps at the office for the VIce President for Open Learning. She joined MIT Bootcamps with 15 years of experience in social innovation, entrepreneurship, and mentoring entrepreneurs. In 2014, Vimala founded and lead Demeter Entrepreneurs Support Network, a global virtual network dedicated to improving the success rates of entrepreneurs in low-income countries through individualized support and coaching. She built Demeter’s mentoring network of more than 80 personal advocates and experts to support nearly 30 entrepreneurs globally. Demeter entrepreneurs are bringing innovations in education, fintech, health and fitness, media, and food to emerging markets.
Prior to Demeter, Vimala co-founded Jamela, a “more-than-fair trade” skin care company, worked at Trickle Up, a sustainable livelihoods NGO, to redesign their monitoring and evaluation system - from data capture to dissemination, and with the Dhan Foundation in India, to develop a community-financed primary health care program. She has also worked in education technology, microfinance, water, transportation systems, and biological research in the US, Asia, Africa, and Central America.
Vimala has an MBA from MIT Sloan and an MPH in Global Health from Emory University. Her undergraduate degrees in Microbiology and Biology are from the University of Georgia and Simon’s Rock College of Bard.
Brynjólfur Sævarsson
Brynjólfur helps managers and entrepreneurs navigate through digital transformation. He is an experienced and creative leader. Skilled in Negotiation, Banking, Strategy, Lending, Payments, and Change Management.
Karl Guðmundsson
Director of Trade and Export at Promote Iceland
An experienced leader with 20 years of international experience in strategic leadership roles, product development, product management, sales and marketing. Has participated in four start-ups in Europe and the US as well as working in large international corporations.
Þórður Magnússon
Magnusson is co-founder and chairman of the Board of Eyrir Invest. Prior to that, Magnusson was the CFO at Eimskip for over 20 years, and held seat on the boards of numerous Icelandic companies and organizations on behalf of Eimskip.
Sölvi Blöndal
Senior Economist at GAMMA Capital Management and chairman of the board of Alda Music
Andri Heiðar Kristinsson
Andri is an entrepreneur at heart. He has led teams that build consumer products for over 400 million users at LinkedIn, where most recently he led newsfeed engagement. Prior to moving to the Bay Area to pursue an MBA at Stanford in 2011, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of Icelandic Startups.
Davíð Örn Símonarson
CEO & Co-Founder at The One
Kristján Freyr Kristjánsson
CEO & Co-Founder at 50skills
Kristjan is CEO & Co-Founder of 50skills.com. 50skills is an all-in-one recruiting platform designed to help employers qualify, hire and onboard job candidates using automation.
Prior to 50skills, Kristjan was VP of Marketing Products at Meniga, CEO at Icelandic Startups. He lives in Boston, MA.
Hrefna Helgadóttir
Hrefna Helgadóttir (Habbi) is a Product Manager at Promogogo, a suite of marketing tools for ticket sales. She also co-hosts the MakeWorkWork podcast. When she's not on the internet, Habbi travels to see family, friends, and of course, live shows."
Ísleifur Þórhallsson
For more than 25 years, Ísleifur Thorhallsson has been promoting live shows in Iceland. His touring and promotion company, Sena Live, has become the premiere concert company in Iceland, lifting the Icelandic touring business to a new level with record breaking shows from international acts like The Eagles, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ed Sheeran, and renowned local acts such as Sigur Rós and Ólafur Arnalds. Sena Live also owns, programs and operates Iceland Airwaves, a 20 year old music showcase festival that is widely known and well regarded all over the world to the public and industry alike.
Tómas Þorvaldsson An attorney-at-law at VÍK Law Firm and has been engaged with the music industry and other creative industries for 30 years. He has specialised in intellectual property law and corporate law and has spent most of his career on advise and negotiating contracts within the creative industries, such as in music, film, entertainment, software, gaming, design, entrepreuneral ventures, start-ups etc. Amongst his clients are some of the biggest names in music as well as in film production in Iceland.
Antoine Merour
After 15 years working in a variety of industries, Antoine has developed a burning desire to understand how high performing organizations can be reliably designed. Antoine's research focuses specifically on how to create and maintain strategic clarity, how to design adaptive organizations and how to create and sustain a culture of performance. In his last corporate job, Antoine was the Director of Strategy for Riot Games in Europe. Before joining Riot, he led teams of global strategy consultants for Samsung Electronics in South Korea In short: Antoine is best known for helping teams find the simplicity on the other side of complexity.
Ingi Björn Sigurðsson
I´m on board of few startups. Previously I have founded few companies, helped tens of companies to get investable, been mentor and advisor to more then hundreds of startups. I have also worked with Scaling companies to grow and solve scalings issues.
Magga Dóra Ragnarsdóttir
Experience designer and digital strategist with 20 years of experience in software and digital product development.
Margrét Júlíana Sigurðardóttir
Margret Juliana Sigurdardottir made a swift change in her career when she founded the Mussila game studio in Reykjavik in early 2015 along with computer engineer Hilmar Thor Birgisson. Margret is a mom and a versatile musician with a postgraduate degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London and now she has poured her passion for music into the Mussila Music School educational mobile app for kids. Mussila´s aim is to make music education widely accessible to children and bridge the gap between learning and understanding the written language of music - and the joy of playing. With a steadily growing number of more than half a million users, Mussila has grown into a mature educational game that is loved and played by children all over the world.
Steinunn Arnardóttir
Steinunn has been a part of the Native Instruments team for 10 years and currently leads NI's Platform and Infrastructure teams. Previously she was a part of Native's Research team as a DSP Developer where she worked on audio effects such as compressors, limiters, reverbs and filters for most of Native’s product range, including Maschine, Traktor, GuitarRig and Kontakt. She holds a B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Iceland and M.A. in Music Science and Technology and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, both from Stanford University.
Beggi Dan
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman at Svartigaldur and Co-Founder & Director of Development at Two Birds
Jón Gunnar Þórðarson
MBA degree from the University of Reykjavik and BA in directing from Drama Centre London. Broad experience in marketing, theatre and event management. I have directed over 40 productions in Iceland, UK, and Scandinavia. Including the opera Der Freizutch, Macbeth at the Arcola Theatre in London. By directing and producing from small fringe theatre to large scale productions I have gained experience in team-building and know how to make something from scratch. After graduating with an MBA degree from the University of Reykjavik I joined the Mussila team as a CMO. Today Mussila is used by children all over the world and our mission is to enable everyone to learn music.
Magnús Þór Torfason
Magnus is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iceland School of Business, where he heads the Masters Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Before that, he was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School. Magnus is a founder and board member of Handpoint.