Björgólfur Guðmundsson

Björgólfur Guðmundsson (born 1941-01-02 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is the chairman and owner of West Ham United FC. Björgólfur is Iceland's second billionaire business man (his son being the first) and is currently ranked by Forbes Magazine (in 2008) as the 1014th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $1.1b. [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_The-Worlds-Billionaires_CountryOfCitizen_10.html Forbe's Rich List 2008] ] He is a majority owner and chairman of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki, the second largest company in Iceland. He is the father of billionaire Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson. Björgólfur is married to Þóra Hallgrímsdóttir. Björgólfur is a former footballer, furniture packer and law student, a recovering alcoholic of 30 years and an old-fashioned philanthropist. In the 1990s he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, for bookkeeping offences, having faced around 450 charges.cite news|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2007/sep/02/newsstory.sport10|title=He's the real thing|date=2007-09-02|publisher=The Observer|accessdate=2008-09-12] He went to Russia, remade his fortune and returned to Iceland, where he also has interests in shipping, publishing, food, communications and property.cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/nov/29/sport.comment|title=The real power behind West Ham|date=2006-11-29|publisher=The Guardian|accessdate=2008-09-12]

Björgólfur Guðmundsson co-founded Bravo Brewery with Magnús Þorsteinsson chairman of Avion Group and his son fellow billionaire Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson. Bravo Brewery became a success and they later sold the venture to Heineken for $400 million which they invested both in Iceland and abroad.

Guðmundsson has been a keen football fan for years and led the consortium which bought the English Premier League football club West Ham United. He bought 90% of club himself and became the club's Honorary Life President in June 2006, alongside Eggert Magnússon who became Chairman. In December 2007, Guðmundsson bought out Magnusson's residual 5% stake, and took over the chairman's role. [ [http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_2967356,00.html Magnusson leaves Hammers] SkySports - 13 December, 2007] cite news
title = Eggert is victim of Hammers' reshuffle as he loses chairman's role at Upton Park
url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=501674&in_page_id=1779&ito=newsnow
publisher = Daily Mail
date = 2007-12-13
accessdate = 2007-12-13] He elevated West Ham's legal counsel, Scott Duxbury, to CEO. In a more controversial move, he hired Gianluca Nani as director of football and Joseph Sweets as director of international scouting.

References

External links

* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Bjorgolfur-Gudmundsson_DCEV.html Forbes article]
* [http://www.landsbanki.is/ Landsbanki Islands]
* [http://www.whufc.com/club/?page_id=1231 Official West Ham United staff web page]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/marks/story/0,14708,1507595,00.html Guardian article June 16 2005]
* [http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2160911,00.html Guardian article September 2 2007]
* [http://www.euromoney.com/article.asp?PositionID=765&ArticleID=1002879&IssueID=50041 Euromoney November 2002]