CEO
Akureyri Hospital
Hildigunnur Svavarsdóttir is the Chief Executive Officer of Akureyri Hospital, one of Iceland’s main regional hospitals. She has extensive experience in emergency services and healthcare leadership, including serving as Chief Nursing Executive at Akureyri Hospital. She has also been an assistant professor at the University of Akureyri for several years. Hildigunnur holds an MSc in Health Studies from Glasgow Caledonian University and a BSc in Nursing from the University of Akureyri.
Throughout her career, she has focused on emergency care, healthcare administration and professional education, with a more recent emphasis on hospital management. She has co-authored numerous publications on resuscitation, rural healthcare and workforce retention and has contributed to the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) guidelines. Hildigunnur has also held leadership roles within the ERC and ILCOR and has represented Iceland in various international health collaborations.
She has been actively involved in several EU-funded initiatives on healthcare workforce recruitment and retention in rural areas and has been a regular speaker at international conferences on these topics.
Monday, March 2, 2026
2:00pm - 3:00pm CT