Member of the Icelandic Parliament — Samfylkingin
Guðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson is a Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Alliance representing the Southwest Constituency since 2024 and has served as parliamentary group leader of his party since 2025. He is also chair of the executive board of the Social Democratic Alliance from 2022 to 2025. Guðmundur Ari has for many years been a leading figure in youth work and community development in Iceland and internationally. Before entering Parliament, Guðmundur Ari played key roles in local government in Seltjarnarnes, serving as a member of the municipal council from 2014 to 2024 and on the municipal executive board from 2018 to 2024. He served on the board of the Association of Icelandic Municipalities and represented Iceland at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe from 2018 to 2022. In Parliament, he sits on the General and Education Committee and is a member of the Icelandic delegation to the Nordic Council, where he chairs the Nordic Committee on Knowledge and Culture. Guðmundur Ari has focused on youth work, education, and the participation of young people in democratic processes throughout his career. He has worked as a specialist, researcher, and lecturer in youth and community work and is the author and co-author of numerous publications on the professionalization of youth work and the development of Icelandic and international youth work practice.
Guðmundur Ari began his career on the labor market with manual labor from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, he started working as a youth worker at Selið youth center in Seltjarnarnes and after nearly a decade in that role, he was appointed director of the youth center in 2017, a position he held until 2020. There he laid the foundation for a deep understanding of youth work and its professionalization, which later manifested in his teaching, research, and work at national and international levels. In 2020, Guðmundur Ari became CEO of LifeQuest ehf., a position he held until 2022. The same year, he worked on project management for the Football Association of Iceland. From 2022 to 2024, he served as a specialist in European programs for young people at Rannís (The Icelandic Centre for Research), where he contributed to opening more opportunities for young Icelanders to participate in European youth programs. Alongside his professional work, Guðmundur Ari has been active in local government in Seltjarnarnes since 2014, serving on the municipal executive board from 2018 and participating in diverse committee work. He served on the board of the Association of Icelandic Municipalities from 2018 to 2024, represented the association on the Government Youth Council, and represented Iceland at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe from 2018 to 2022. He also served on the board of the Directorate of Labour from 2022 to 2025. This diverse work has given him extensive experience in administration, policy-making, and international cooperation.