Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, has appointed Herdís Gunnarsdóttir as director of the Welfare Quality and Inspection Authority, which took up the post on 1 April 2022. Herdís Gunnarsdóttir was born in 1968. She completed a BSc in Nursing from the University of Iceland in 1993 and an MSc degree in Nursing from the same school in 2001, focusing on neonatal and child care. She holds a specialist licence in paediatric nursing and is a qualified student from the University of Iceland as a clinical lecturer. In 2009, she completed an MBA in business administration from the University of Iceland, focusing on strategy, finance and modelling, change and project management and service management. In 2016, Herdís met the qualifications and competence assessment of the Financial Supervisory Authority advisory committee for directors of financial undertakings.

Herdís has a 20-year career as a manager. In 2001 to 2006 Herdís was the head of the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Medical and Childcare at Landspítali. In 2007, she was the director of quality and human resources at the Children's Hospital. From 2008 to 2014 she worked as a project manager at the Landspítali University Hospital Commission and at the hospital's Health and Information Technology Department to direct the development, design and implementation of new health information systems components in health information systems and various quality projects. In 2014-2019 Herdís was appointed director at the Healthcare Institute of Southern Iceland (HSU) in the widest healthcare district in Iceland, merging three previous institutions into one new institution. The Institute employed around 500 people in the fields of health care, hospitals, nursing facilities and ambulance services. In the autumn of 2019, she was temporarily the director at Reykjalundur. From March 2020, she was the director of the Division of Human Rights at the SIA, leading extensive projects on welfare and services.

Herdís has extensive experience in the fields of operations, human resource management and professional services. It has led to extensive improvements and projects, has been involved in professional development and restructuring and streamlining of operations and services. She has, inter alia, directed policy-making, operational planning, tenders, service surveys, analysis of a wide range of data and information. It has been responsible for the development and implementation of large-scale quality and innovative projects and has played a leading role in the reform, development and cooperation of professional groups. She has, in addition to her administrative duties, carried out university teaching and research work. In addition, the Committee has extensive experience in government work in organisations, trade unions, pension funds, banks and European cooperation. For example, Herdís was for a while chairman of the Icelandic Nurses Pension Fund and currently sits on the Reserve Board of Íslandsbanki.