TIME magazine has recently released their Top 100 Most Influential People list. Unfortunately, the events of the past year have drawn negative attention to Iceland – the venture capitalists who were once lauded and admired are now despised, and relegated to the Least Influential List. On the bright side, deCODE founder Kári Stefánsson made 81st place on the Top 100 Most Influential list.
Sharing the “Slimy Bastards” category with the likes of Mark Sanford, Lindsay Lohan and Bernie Madoff are three Icelanders:
Björgólfur Guðmundsson is described as “Iceland’s second billionaire ever — the first was his son, Thor Björgólfsson – went from being worth $1.1 billion to $0. And he’s being investigated. And he destroyed his country’s economy. And Gordon Brown used antiterrorist laws to freeze Landsbanki’s U.K. holdings. And he named his bank Landsbanki. The British hate him more than they hate his country’s volcanoes.”
Next, TIME says of Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson that “When you’re a good-looking dude who sells clothing, you have to really screw up to have people protest in the streets against you. And for your ex-mistress to talk about your sex life during an accounting trial. Anyway, no one is lending him money now. Not even in kronur.”
Finally, of Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, the journalist who wrote the entry says only, “I kind of went down a Wikipedia hole with the Icelandic financial crisis.”
It’s not all bad news, though – Kári Stefánsson, who placed 81st on the good people list, is recognized with respect, however cautious. “Stefansson’s work could deepen our understanding of diseases that strike non-Icelanders,” TIME says in part. “For now, deCODE boasts more promise than profit; translating findings into treatments will take time.”