Essentially honorary, her duties have little in common with those of her French or American counterparts. Yet she is determined to make her voice heard: "I don't want to be a president who has all the answers, but one who asks the right questions and connects people to rumble on possible solutions at a difficult time," confided Halla Tomasdottir, speaking to Le Monde during a visit to Paris on Wednesday, August 28, to attend the Paralympic Games. On June 2, this 55-year-old businesswoman, unaffiliated to any party, was elected to lead Iceland with 34.1% of the vote, thanks to a campaign that particularly focused on young people's mental health and the issue of artificial intelligence.
Her unusual background stands out from among the country's political class: She studied in the United States, and pursued a career in the private sector, notably with Mars and PepsiCo, before moving back to Reykjavik to teach in the early 2000s. In 2007, just as the country was on the brink of sliding into a brutal financial crisis, she co-founded Audur Capital, an investment company promoting feminine values in finance – values she now intends to instill in the political arena. "In 2008, our financial sector was about 10 times the size of our GDP [gross domestic product]: That is simply too much risk," she recalled. "There was an overemphasis on short-term profit at the expense of everything else. We created Audur Capital with a more inclusive, transparent and long-term strategy, better measuring the risk."
Since then, Tomasdottir has been calling for capitalism to be "updated." "My greatest disappointment with the global financial crisis is that we didn't learn enough," she explained. "We have a system largely built on Milton Friedman's [1912-2006, the economist who inspired neoliberalism] essay from 1972, and it's been a while since it delivered shared value: Inequality is on the rise, both within societies and between parts of the world. The pursuit of profit at the expense of the climate and well-being is just no longer an option."
In particular, she advocates the establishment of high environmental and transparency standards for companies, calls for states to set clear regulations, and a new approach to governance: "In an era of low trust toward institutions, it is no longer possible for governments and businesses to act in silos without bringing civil society and younger generations into the same conversation." A greater diversity of profiles in leadership positions, particularly women, is also essential, she insisted: "Women bring a different vision, because their life experience is different." Just like young people, who are more concerned about the climate and human well-being than previous generations.
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