MANAGEMENT

PATRICK SULEM

CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR

Patrick is a Medical Doctor (MD) specializing in Epidemiology and Public Health and graduated from the University of Toulouse in France in 2002. He also completed a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Paris in 2000. He joined deCODE´s Department of Statistics in 2002 and has contributed to genetic discoveries in various conditions. He is currently leading the Clinical Sequencing effort at deCODE.

UNNUR ÞORSTEINSDÓTTIR

CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR

Dr. Unnur Þorsteinsdóttir earned her PhD in molecular biology from the University of British Columbia in Canada, continued her research there, and has worked at deCODE since 2000. She is regarded as one of the world’s foremost genetic scientists, a trail-blazer among women in science globally, and was named Europe’s most influential female scientist by Research.com in 2023. Unnur serves on board of the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís) and the Science and Technology Policy Council.

DANIEL GUDBJARTSSON

DECODE CHIEF SCIENTIST

Daníel received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in applied mathematics from the University of Iceland, and completed a PhD degree in Statistics at Duke University in 2002. He has focused on statistical methodology development in addition to working on the genetics of several diseases and traits, such as pigmentation and atrial fibrillation. Daniel joined deCODE in 1998 and currently leads the Statistics group at deCODE.

JÓHANN HJARTARSON

General Counsel & Secretary

Jóhann Hjartarson has been the General Counsel of deCODE genetics since 1998. He has also served as Chief Compliance and Data Protection Officer at various times during his tenure at the company. Prior to joining deCODE, Jóhann was a professional chessplayer competing at the highest level and has held the title of International Grandmaster since 1985. He has served on boards of directors of several publicly traded companies in Iceland in recent years. Jóhann holds a law degree (cand. juris) from of the University of Iceland. He is a licensed attorney, member of the Icelandic Bar Association and a European Patent Attorney.

LÁRA INGÓLFSDÓTTIR

CFO

Lára Ingólfsdóttir has been the CFO of deCODE genetics from January 2016. From 2014-2016 Lára was the Director of Corporate Services with the finance group of Alvogen and the CFO of the Icelandic private investment company Íslensk fjárfesting ehf. from 2012-2014. Lára was the controller of deCODE genetics ehf. from 2001-2012. Prior to that she worked in the financial department of an Icelandic car import company for several years.

INGILEIF JÓNSDÓTTIR

Head of Infectious and Inflammatory diseases

Ingileif received her Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in biology from the University of Iceland in 1975 and completed a PhD degree in immunology at the University of Stockholm in 1991. She joined the department of immunology at Landspitali, the National University Hospital of Iceland in 1984, focusing her research on neonatal immunology and vaccination strategies. Ingileif joined deCODE in 2005 and leads the gene discovery work on asthma and various autoimmune and infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. She is also responsible for the ethics approvals of deCODE’s research projects. Ingileif is professor of immunology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland.

GÍSLI MÁSSON

VP Informatics

Gísli received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Mathematics from the University of Iceland in 1986 and completed a PhD degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991. During the years 1991 to 2000 he worked at the Mathematics Institute at Stockholm University, first as a post-doctoral fellow (forskarassistent) and later as an assistant professor (lektor).

ÞÓRUNN RAFNAR

Head of Oncology

Þórunn received her Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in biology from the University of Iceland and completed a Ph.D. degree in molecular biology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990. She subsequently went to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore where she was a postdoctoral fellow 1990-1992, Instructor of Medicine 1992-1994 and Assistant Professor of Medicine 1994-1998. After returning to Iceland, Þórunn was a Visiting Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Iceland until she joined Iceland Genomics Corporation, where she served the role of Chief Operating Officer. In 2006, Þórunn moved to deCODE genetics and became the Head of Division of Oncology. Þórunn´s research interests focus on the link between genetic variation and cancer predisposition, progression and treatment outcomes.

AGNAR HELGASON

Head of Anthropology

Agnar completed his undergraduate and Master’s degrees in Anthropology at the University of Iceland in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He then obtained a second Master’s degree in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 1996 and a D.Phil. (PhD) degree in the same subject from the University of Oxford in 2001. Agnar joined deCODE in 2000. His research focusses on understanding how the evolutionary forces of mutation, migration, drift and natural selection have shaped the gene pool of Icelanders and other populations – in the context of the quest for knowledge about the basis and magnitude of phenotypic differences between humans.

HREINN STEFÁNSSON

Head of CNS

Hreinn Stefánsson, PhD, joined deCODE genetics in 1996 and has led the CNS division since 2000. He received his PhD in biochemistry from Lund University, Sweden and a BSc in biology from University of Iceland. Hreinn has published several articles on the genetics of common/complex diseases including Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s. Together with his colleagues and collaborators he has contributed to better understanding of the impact conferred by neuropsychiatric copy number variants (CNVs) on psychiatric disorders and cognition.

MAGNÚS ÖRN ÚLFARSSON

Head of Artificial Intelligence

Magnús received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iceland. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2007. His main research focus is on the development and application of machine learning methods. Magnús joined Decode in 2013. He is a Professor in the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iceland.

BJARNI V. HALLDÓRSSON

Head of Sequence Analysis

Bjarni received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in mathematics from the University of Iceland in 1996, and completed a PhD in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University 2001. He was a research scientist at Celera Genomics, Rockville MD, from 2001 until he joined deCODE in 2004. He has been an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at Reykjavík University from 2006. Since 2013 he has been Head of Sequence Analysis at deCODE.

GUÐMUNDUR L. NORÐDAHL

Head of Functional Genomics

Guðmundur received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Iceland in 2006, and completed a PhD degree in stem cell biology at Lund University in 2012. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Terry Fox Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver and joined deCODE in 2015. Since 2016, he has been the head of the Functional Genomics with a research focus on the biochemical and cellular effects of sequence variants known to associate with diseases and other traits.

PÁLL MELSTED

Head of RNA sequencing data

Páll received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Mathematics from the University of Iceland in 2003 and completed a PhD degree in Algorithms, Combinatorics and Optimization from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. He was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago from 2009 to 2011 and a faculty at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Iceland from 2011. He joined deCODE in 2013 and from 2019 he has lead the effort on analysis of RNA sequencing data. His work is focused on development of efficient algorithms for working with high-throughput sequencing data and analysis of RNA sequencing datasets. Páll is a professor of computer science at the University of Iceland.

HANNES HELGASON

Head of Proteomics

Hannes Helgason defended his PhD in applied and computational mathematics from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2007. In his thesis he worked with scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and NASA Goddard and developed novel methods for detecting and estimating chirp signals in noisy data with focus on application to gravitational wave data, earning him the W. P. Carey Price at Caltech. Prior to joining deCODE genetics in 2012 as a researcher and an applied statistician, Dr. Helgason was a postdoctoral researcher in statistical signal processing at École Normale Supérieure in Lyon and at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm working in various applied areas, such as internet traffic, 3D video, and analysis of fetal heart rate. Dr. Helgason rejoined deCODE in 2021 after being the Chief Information Officer in the founding team of the first technology company to acquire a US-regulated bank. Today his main research interest and focus is on the application of machine learning in proteomics and genetic data.