Anders FOGH RASMUSSEN

Mr. Rasmussen has been at the centre of European and global politics for three decades as Secretary General of NATO, Prime Minister of Denmark, Danish Minister of Economic Affairs, and a leading Danish parliamentarian.
In 1998, Mr. Rasmussen became chairman of the Danish Liberal Party and leader of the Danish opposition. In the parliamentary elections 2001, his party won to become the biggest party in the Danish parliament. His government was re-elected in 2005 and 2007, and he held the position as Prime Minister until his election as NATO Secretary General at the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit in April 2009.
Mr. Rasmussen was the 12th Secretary General of NATO in 2009-2014. His tenure marked a fundamental transformation of the Alliance. Mr. Rasmussen oversaw the Alliance’s operational peak with six operations on three continents including Afghanistan, Kosovo and Libya, as well as counter-piracy along the Somali coast, a training mission in Iraq and a counter-terrorism operation in the Mediterranean.
He developed a new Strategic Concept, which sets the Alliance’s core priorities for the future. Mr. Rasmussen launched “Smart Defence” to help nations make more efficient use of their resources through more multinational cooperation. In response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, he initiated a “Readiness Action Plan” adopted by Heads of State at a historic summit in Wales. A reformer who made the Alliance leaner and more efficient, Mr. Rasmussen also extended and strengthened NATO’s partnerships with nations around the world, making it the hub of a network of international security partnerships.
Upon leaving NATO, Mr. Rasmussen founded “Rasmussen Global”, which provides geopolitical and strategic consulting services and advises clients on international security, transatlantic relations, the European Union, and emerging markets. In June 2016, Mr. Rasmussen was appointed adviser to the President of Ukraine, Mr. Petro Poroshenko.
Born in 1953, Mr. Rasmussen earned an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Aarhus in 1978.