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Björgólfur Guðmundsson (born 2 January 1941 in Reykjavík, Iceland) was the chairman and former owner of West Ham United FC. Björgólfur was Iceland's second businessman worth more than a billion dollars — his son, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson being the first. He was at one time the majority owner and chairman of the now nationalised Icelandic bank Landsbanki, the second largest company in Iceland. He was ranked by ''Forbes'' magazine in March 2008 as the 1014th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $1.1 billion.〔(Forbe's Rich List 2008 )〕 In December of the same year Forbes revalued his net worth to $0〔(Billionaire Blowups of 2008 )〕 and on 31 July 2009 he was declared bankrupt by the Icelandic courts with debts of almost £500 million (96 Billion ISK).〔(Icelandic bank chief in £500m of hot water )〕 Björgólfur is a former footballer, furniture packer and law student, a recovering alcoholic of 30 years and an old-fashioned philanthropist. In the 1990s he was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 2 years, for bookkeeping offences, having faced around 450 charges. He went to Russia, remade his fortune and returned to Iceland, where he also has interests in shipping, publishing, food, communications and property. ==Early life and marriage== Björgólfur's parents were Guðmundur Pétur Ólafsson (1911–79) and Kristín Davíðsdóttir.〔http://www.visir.is/bjorgolfur-gudmundsson---fra-upphafi-til-enda/article/2009796238314; http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/1499064/〕 Björgólfur has an elder brother, Davíð, and sisters.〔Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson, ''Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi'' (Reykjavík: Veröld, 2014), p. 53.〕 The young Björgólfur graduated from the Commercial College of Iceland in 1962,〔'Björgólfur Guðmundsson', ''Stúdentafagnaður 2012'', http://atlas.verslo.is/1962?s=nemendur_meira&sid=6168.〕 was an organiser of the Independence Party youth wing and is described by Roger Boyes as :: a promising young man, handsome, clean-cut, with reasonable English and a smooth, reassuring manner. His father ... headed Shell Iceland. The family was thus intimately linked with the Octopus and the Independence Party. There was nothing of the outsider about him.〔Roger Boyes, ''Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island'' (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), pp. 63-64, 71. 76.〕 Accounts vary, but it has been claimed that in 1958 Björgólfur was asked by the family of Thor Philip Axel Jensen, Iceland's foremost businessman of the time, to accompany Hallgrímur Fr. Hallgrímsson to the USA to bring back Hallgrímur's daughter Margrét Þóra Hallgrímsson, who had left her first marriage to Haukur Clausen to marry the American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell.〔Roger Boyes, ''Meltdown Iceland: Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island'' (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), pp. 63-64; Ingi Freyr Vilhjálmsson, ''Hamskiptin: Þegar allt varð falt á Íslandi'' (Reykjavík: Veröld, 2014), p. 55.〕 Either way, Björgólfur married Þóra in 1963 and adopted her children by Clausen (Örn Friðrik) and Rockwell (Hallgrímur, Margrét (who died in 1989), and Evelyn Bentína).〔http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/286017/〕 The couple subsequently had a child of their own, Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson.〔 From 1962–77, Björgólfur was the founder and director of Dósagerðin hf.; from 1977–86 he was the director of Hafskip, with further responsibilities for its various daughter companies in the Europe and the USA.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Björgólfur Guðmundsson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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