I’m Haraldur Thorleifsson
I hope I’m pronouncing that correctly.

About

I’ve founded and sold a design and innovation agency, founded an artist community. I’ve created a restaurant, a movie theater, a bank, ramps, a recording studio, written and released music, illustrated books, been a keynote speaker, written for and acted in films and TV shows, hosted podcasts. I proudly paid the highest taxes in my home country three years in a row. I studied philosophy, finance, economics. I’ve been man of the year, designer of the year, philanthropist of the year, business man of the year. I got an apology from the richest man in the world. I have a wife, two kids, two cats and a presidential medal of chivalry.

And I’m just getting started. Learn more

New things

More new things

‘Let’s Walk’ announced

June 6th 2025

I recently got a new wheelchair. After having limited mobility for the better part of 30 years I’m now able to get around a lot easier. One of the first things I did was starting to go on long walks with my friends, many of them people in the creative fields, artists, entrepreneurs, authors. And I realized that the conversations I had on the move were very different to the ones I had inside. So I started to record them. Let’s Walk is a podcast where actors, musicians, directors, writers, dancers, and more tell me about their lives and how they got to where they are.

Go to podcast website

‘Öll Þín Tár’ released

April 10th 2025

When I was 15 years old I got a CD for Christmas.The artist was Icelandic, Kristján Kristjánsson (KK), and the CD was amazing. I learned how to play guitar because I wanted to play those songs. 20 years later, when me and my wife were about to have our first baby, we listened obsessively to another artist Ólöf Arnalds, and her album that was in part about her having her first child. By some miracle I'm releasing a song today that I wrote with both of these people.

Listen on Spotify

Ramp Up featured in Fast Company

March 31st 2025

“So in 2021, Thorleifsson launched Ramp Up Reykjavík to fund the installation of 100 ramps in places with the most foot traffic across Iceland’s capital—cafés, restaurants, and shops. Four years later, the project has delivered far more ramps than initially promised and well beyond Reykjavík to additional Icelandic cities, garnering a fitting name change to Ramp Up Iceland.”

Read article

Function + Feeling

I’m a dreamer. Every project starts with a feeling, a deep emotional story that moves people to action, a reason for being, a reason for doing. A place worth going to even if mountains need to be moved. But I don’t want to live in a dream, I want to change the world. So, every project I work on needs to have a function, a strategy, a plan, a realistic path from dream to reality, from zero to one. I make things that work, that people enjoy using.

You can see some of them below.

Ueno.

Ueno was a strategic design and innovation studio. We worked with many of the most innovative companies in the world to build products used daily by billions of people, create brands that changed the world and we won every award available.

I started Ueno at my kitchen table with less than $1000. Seven years later I sold it to Twitter in one of the biggest independent agency sales in history.

I worked at Twitter for two years before being let go by mistake and I had a brief discussion about that with Elon, but it all ended well. There I led the innovation team that among others spearheaded Communities on the platform as well as the long awaited edit button. I also tweet there sometimes.

Learn more about Ueno

Ramp Up

I have a genetic disease called Dysferlinopathy, and have used a wheelchair for the last 20 years.

When I moved back to Iceland I saw steps everywhere, steps that blocked me from going shopping with my kids at Christmas, steps that stopped me from meeting my friends at cafés, steps that stopped me from going to the theater, barber shop, ice cream parlor, restaurants. And not just me, everyone who uses a wheelchair.

So, I decided it was time to fix this. I started a non-profit and in 3 years we built almost 2000 ramps across Iceland. And when we ran out of places to ramp in Iceland we went to Ukraine, Panama, New York and started building ramps there. We’ve been featured in Fast Company and by the United Nations among others.

Learn more about Ramp Up

Anna Jóna

I created a restaurant + bar + cinema in memory of my mom, Anna Jóna Jónsdóttir. It was featured by Eater as one of the best restaurants in Iceland.

My mom was an artist and costume designer. And, as many moms, she was the best mom in the world. She was warm, kind and giving. Incredibly funny and creative. She could make anything out of nothing. She was soft and tender. Courageous and strong.

She taught me to see the beauty in everything. To look for the joy, even in moments of pain. I lost her when I was 11 years old. It’s been over 35 years and I still think about her every day. And everything she gave me.

Learn more about Anna Jóna

Hafnar.haus

Darkness and cold breed isolation and creativity. At least in Iceland.

A country, with fewer people than many neighborhoods, has produced an incredible amount of world class artists. But they often work alone.

In partnership with the Mayor of Reykjavík, and some of the most creative people in Iceland, I decided to create a hub, based in part on the philosophies of Bauhaus. A place where musicians, entrepreneurs, visual artists, writers, filmmakers, and more, could all work under one roof.

I funded a non-profit that rents out 2500 square meters in downtown Reykjavík where creative people eat together, create together, play together. For a fraction of the market rate, we offer studios, co-working spaces, daily lunches and breakfast, a kiln, a recording studio, access to printers, a photo studio, showrooms, residencies and more.

In the two years since we set up shop we’ve become the largest community of creative people in the country with over 250 active members creating everything from dildos to art exhibitions that are going to be placed on the moon.

Learn more about Hafnar.haus

Önnu Jónu Son

I started writing songs in my teens but I was too shy to play them for anyone, let alone record them. Thirty years later I released my first album ‘The Radio Won’t Let Me Sleep’ on Bad Taste Records.

The songs are about love and loss, and the experience of living in a body that keeps failing me. Each song was released with an original video that we shot in 9 cities on 4 continents.

The album was reviewed on NPR, I performed a little bit of a preview on the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service and we opened up the 2022 Iceland Airwaves. I also released a song in Icelandic in 2025 with my two idols, called ‘Öll þín tár’.

Learn more about Önnu Jónu Son