Skúli Mogensen

Skúli Mogensen (born 18 September 1968)[1] is an Icelandic investor and entrepreneur. He owns the investment firm Títan,[2] founded and OZ Communications,[3] and founded and was sole owner[4] and CEO of the Iceland-based budget airline WOW air,[5] which went bankrupt on 28 March 2019.

This is an Icelandic name, this person is referred to by the given name Skúli.
Skúli Mogensen
Born (1968-09-18) 18 September 1968
Reykjavík, Iceland
NationalityIcelandic
OccupationBusiness person
Parents
  • Brynjólfur Árni Mogensen
  • Anna Skúladóttir

Early life and education

Skúli's mother, Anna Skúladóttir, is a former financial director for the city of Reykjavík;[6][7] his father, Brynjólfur Mogensen, is an orthopedist and Skúli spent much of his childhood in Sweden while his father was studying there.[8] He was an exchange student in San Diego in California,[8] then studied philosophy at the University of Iceland;[9] he co-founded his first business, OZ Communications, as a student and dropped out when the company took off.[9]

Career

Skúli served as CEO of OZ for 18 years until the company was sold to Nokia in 2008.[10][11] He was among the founders of Scandic hf. (in 1993),[8] Íslandssími[1] and Arctic Ventures.[2] He registered Títan investment firm in Iceland in October 2009;[2] in 2011 Skúli led a buyout of MP Bank.[12]

He founded WOW air in November 2011,[11][13] and took over as CEO from Baldur Baldursson the following year.[14] On 28 March 2019, the day the company ceased operations,[15] he wrote a letter to employees apologising "for not taking action sooner".[16] WOW air was named Low Cost Airline of the year in 2018 by CAPA.[17]

Skúli was a board member at Securitas, MP Bank, Kvika bank, Datamarket, Redline Communications, Carbon Recycling International, Thor Datacenter and other companies.

Skúli is founder and CEO of Títan Fjárfestingarfélag which is his private investment firm with holdings primarily in the travel, tourism and leisure markets along with real estate investments.

Skúli Mogensen was named Iceland's Businessman of the Year in 2011 and 2016.[9] Skúli Mogensen was awarded IMARKs marketing person of the year 2017 [18]

Private life

He was formerly married to Margrét Ásgeirsdóttir, a physician; they moved to Canada in 2002, while he was running OZ, and lived there until 2010.[2] They have three children and divorced in 2013.[19]

References
  1. Marta María Jónasdóttir (September 18, 2018). "Smartland: Skúli aldrei verið flottari fimmtugur" [Smartland: Skúli at 50 has never looked better]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  2. Jón G. Haukson (July 1, 2013). "Skúli Mogensen". Frjáls verslun (in Icelandic). pp. 50–51. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  3. "iPerceptions raises $3.65 Million from Skuli Mogensen & Telesystem". Techvibes. December 2, 2008. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  4. "Skúli gæti endað með 0 prósent hlut". Kjarninn (in Icelandic). 2019-03-09. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  5. Josephs, Leslie (June 27, 2018). "'We have to do better.' WOW Air's CEO faces angry customers—and readies an expansion". CNBC. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  6. "Móðir Skúla í stjórn Kviku" [Skúli's mother in the board of Kviku]. Viðskiptablaðið (in Icelandic). March 23, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  7. "Mamma Skúla í stjórn Kviku" [Skuli’s mom at the board of Kviki]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). March 23, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  8. Lilja Katrín Gunnarsdóttir (March 28, 2019). "Fimm hlutir sem þú vissir ekki um Skúla Mogensen" [Five things you don't know about Skúli Mogensen]. Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  9. Moore, Karl (September 1, 2017). "How Wow Air's CEO charted his own course despite never having had a 'job'". Financial Post. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  10. Helft, Miguel (January 12, 2016). "Former Tech Exec's New Offering: $199 Flights To Europe From LAX And SFO". Forbes. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  11. "Skúli mætti með Grímu" [Skúli and Gríma showed up together]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). December 13, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  12. "Skúli Mogensen og frú eiga tæpa 8 milljarða í hreinni eign" [Skúli Mogensen and his wife have almost 8 billion in net assets]. Vísir.is (in Icelandic). July 28, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  13. Guttman, Amy (June 29, 2018). "Meet An Icelandic Entrepreneur Disrupting Global Air Travel". Forbes. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
  14. "Skúli Mogensen nýr forstjóri WOW air" [Skúli Mogensen new CEO of WOW air]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). August 29, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  15. "End of Operation of WOW AIR". Icelandic Transport Authority. March 28, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  16. "CEO of WOW air: 'I will never forgive myself'". Iceland Monitor. Morgunblaðið. March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  17. "CAPA Announces 2018 Aviation Awards for Excellence | Aero-News Network".
  18. "Skúli Mogensen Markaðsmaður ársins".
  19. "Skúli Mogensen skilinn" [Skúli Mogensen divorced]. Vísir.is. February 9, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2019.


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