Three decades where technology, institutions, and pressure meet.
Gísli Rafn Ólafsson is an Icelandic technology executive, former member of parliament, and crisis leader who advises boards and governments on artificial intelligence. He is founder and CEO of Gridland Consulting and the author of four books, including The AI Fluent Leader and The AI Fluent Nation.
In 1993, as a student at the University of Copenhagen, I spent my evenings training small neural networks that wheezed overnight on a borrowed machine. Respected professors told me, kindly, that I was studying a dead end. Around the same time I joined one of Iceland’s volunteer search and rescue teams, and on my first training day I rappelled down a twenty-meter cliff despite a fear of heights. Those two passions, technology and the moment of crisis, have shaped everything since.
I spent two decades in the technology industry, much of it at Microsoft, until in 2007 Microsoft asked me to bring the two together as an advisor to governments and international organizations on technology in disasters. I led Iceland’s urban search and rescue team into Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake, and went on to lead emergency response for NetHope through the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the Nepal earthquake.
Later I served as chief technology officer of an investment bank and of an organization serving more than a million smallholder farmers in Africa, as a member and Deputy Speaker of Iceland’s parliament, and as Secretary General of the Icelandic Red Cross. Every one of those roles taught the same lesson from a different angle: when pressure arrives, it reveals the leadership that was already there. Today I bring that lesson to boards and governments facing artificial intelligence, through Gridland Consulting, my books, and my keynotes.
Four convictions behind the work
AI does not replace leaders. It exposes them.
Artificial intelligence does not create most of the institutional problems it reveals. Weak strategy, thin governance, neglected data, untested capability, and cultures that resist change were already there. AI simply makes them impossible to ignore.
Resilience is a strategic advantage.
Resilience is not a back-office discipline, a compliance category, or a cost center. Institutions that build the capacity to absorb shocks and adapt hold a measurable advantage over those that do not, and that capacity is built in calm years or not at all.
Leadership is responsibility, not authority.
Authority is what the chart confers. Responsibility is what a leader accepts when the decision and its consequences are theirs. In every crisis I have worked, the people who carried the response were rarely the ones with the largest titles.
Composed courage is a defining capability.
It is cultivated rather than summoned. Composure under pressure is the ability to stay calm, clear, and humane while the ground moves, and it is learned long before the moment that requires it.
A career built under pressure
The full record of roles, education, publications, and teaching is in the CV.
- 2003 to nowGridland Consulting, founder and CEO. Senior counsel on AI, leadership, and resilience for boards, executive teams, and governments.
- 2025 to 2026Icelandic Red Cross, Secretary General. National leadership of one of Iceland’s largest civil society institutions, with thousands of volunteers and a mandate written into law.
- 2021 to 2024Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament, Member of Parliament. Deputy Speaker, Deputy Chair of the Industries Committee and of the Economic Affairs and Trade Committee.
- 2019 to 2021One Acre Fund, Chief Technology Officer. Digital transformation for an organization serving 1.2 million smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
- 2015 to 2018Beringer Finance, Chief Technology Officer and CEO of US operations. Digital transformation of the oldest investment bank in the Nordics.
- 2010 to 2015NetHope, Emergency Response Director. Connectivity for more than 300 humanitarian locations during the Ebola outbreak, the Syrian refugee crisis, Typhoon Haiyan, and the Nepal earthquake.
- Late 1990s to 2010Microsoft, product and advisory roles. From 2007, advisor to governments and UN agencies on technology in disasters, including the H1N1 pandemic and the Haiti earthquake.
- 1993 to nowSearch and rescue, volunteer and incident manager with ICE-SAR, team leader of the Icelandic Urban Search and Rescue Team, and member of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team.