The Icelandic Canadian - 01.05.2008, Page 15

Vol. 61 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
105
Neil Bardal: On Leadership
An interview by Kevin Johnson with Neil Bardal
Excerpt from a longer interview
Kevin: You raise a crucial point about
leadership, that it is not a congeniality con-
test. In John F. Kennedy’s “Profiles in
Courage”, he admires people who make
hard choices because they deem them to be
right by their moral compass, not because
they are expedient or rate well in the polls.
It is perhaps human nature to want to be
liked by others. When one grows in leader-
ship does one need to grow a thick hide?
Neil: Right on Kevin.
My leadership style is initiated when I
take responsibility for a certain task or get
it into my head that I can create something
that is an improvement over what already
exists. These are broad strokes I agree but I
wanted to mention them at the outset to
give you an idea that I do not think that
leaders are necessarily born or possess par-
ticular skills not given to most. It is how
one uses those skills that lets one see the
emergence of leadership qualities.
Kevin: Could you comment on your
role with the Valuing the Icelandic
Presence (VIP) organization (University of
Manitoba Department of Icelandic)?
Neil: As for the VIP, it was really the
godchild of Dr. Kenneth Thorlakson and
given to him for his ability to raise the level
of funds needed to match the expected
funds from Iceland. I asked Ken to take the
helm after struggling with the Heritage
Image and Pride (HIP) initiative begun by
Steini Kristjansson and myself. In the HIP
campaign we raised $700,000 to take the
Icelandic Literature and Language fund to
the million dollar mark. We were shot in
the foot by the appointment of Kirsten
Wolf, a competent Head of our
Department of Icelandic Language and
Literature, but her Danish blood still raised
hackles among many of our people.
However, this being as it may, we did suc-
ceed in raising the above amount but
almost at a rate of $10.00 per donation!
Ken on the other hand often raised
$100,000 in one visit. Where I was able to
be useful was as Honorary Consul General
in Manitoba and in my having met many of
the major players in Icelandic business,
Eimskip being a plumb indeed. HorSur
Sigurgestsson suggested to me that before
he would depart from his position as
Chairman of the Eimskip Board he wanted
to give a major gift to some Icelandic
Canadian enterprise. The Betel waterfront
project blossomed at the time but I thought
the University by far the better choice for
such a grant.
I arranged to send Caroline Presser,
the head of Libraries at the University of
Manitoba, to Iceland telling her that she is
to meet with HorSur and during the meet-
ing was to say succinctly, when he asks
how much, “One million dollars!” It
worked and the rest is history. I knew two
things, one that HorSur was being pres-
sured to give money created by shares
owned by Western Icelanders and held in
trust for the use of the University of
Iceland and when appropriate the
University of Manitoba Department of
Icelandic. I also knew that it needed a bold
stroke and Caroline was the answer. I sim-
ply used what I knew in a strategic manner
knowing what I wanted as an end result.
I do much the same with how I operate
my business.
Kevin: Your involvement with HIP
and VIP shows that you served as an
important mediator between Iceland and
Manitoba; your service as Honorary
Consul General put you in an ideal posi-
tion to fulfill this role. You did something
similar, I believe, when you earlier spear-
headed the Canada-wide visit of President
Vigdis Finnbogadottir. I would be interest-
ed to hear your reflections on that great