#WeLeadComms: Guðjón Helgason

Icelandic communication leader Guðjón Helgason is today’s #WeLeadComms honoree.

Guðjón is a communications pro whose career has been shaped by a lifelong passion for storytelling. His route into communications grew naturally out of almost 15 years in journalism, where he learned to find the story, understand an audience and communicate complicated issues in a way that people can understand.

He is currently Communications Manager at Isavia, the company responsible for the operation and development of Iceland’s airports, including Keflavík International Airport, Iceland’s main international gateway.

Guðjón began his career in journalism, working across Icelandic media including broadcasting networks Stöð 2 and RÚV. When he moved into communications, he saw it not as leaving journalism behind but as a continuation of what had always fascinated him: telling stories. The difference was that instead of finding stories to tell about other people and organisations, he was helping organisations understand, shape and tell their own stories.

He joined Isavia in 2017, advising the CEO and executive management while leading communications through some of the most challenging and transformative periods in the company’s history. He has worked through the extraordinary growth in Icelandic tourism, the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex recovery that followed.

Working in aviation has reinforced his belief that communications is most valuable when it is close to the business. At an international airport, communications is not simply about reputation. It can affect passenger behaviour, operational resilience, employee confidence, stakeholder relationships and the public’s understanding of decisions that can have an immediate impact on thousands of people.

His passion for storytelling predates his professional career. At the age of 12, Guðjón wrote a 100-page thriller, which he only showed to friends. His love of crime and thriller fiction has remained with him ever since, and he continues as a hobby to write fiction alongside his communications career.

For Guðjón, the best communications combines the discipline of journalism with the craft of storytelling. He believes communicators should be involved early enough to help shape strategy, rather than being brought in at the end to make decisions “sound good”. Credibility, curiosity and a willingness to ask difficult questions are, in his view, more valuable than polished corporate language.

His journalism background also informs his approach to media relations. He believes journalists are not an obstacle to be managed but an essential part of the public conversation, and that the best relationships are built through honesty, accessibility and trust — long before a crisis arrives.

He remains fascinated by what makes people pay attention, what makes them believe a story, and what makes a story stay with them. Whether communicating about an airport, navigating a crisis or writing a thriller, the fundamental challenge is remarkably similar: understand your audience, know what matters to them, and tell the story well.

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