Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Anders Fogh Rasmussen (born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014.

He became CEO of political consultancy Rasmussen Global and founded the Alliance of Democracies Foundation.

He serves as a senior adviser to Citigroup.

He also served as a senior advisor at The Boston Consulting Group.

Rasmussen was born in 1953 in Ginnerup, Jutland, Denmark, to farmer Knud Rasmussen and Martha Rasmussen (née Fogh).

His surname is Rasmussen, while Fogh, his mother's maiden name, is his middle name and not considered part of his last name.

He is correctly referred to as Rasmussen (not Fogh Rasmussen), unless his full name (including his given name) is used.

In Danish media and society, he has often been popularly referred to as Fogh Rasmussen, or merely Anders Fogh, when not referred to by his full name, mainly to distinguish him from other prominent politicians in the country with the same family name.

He and his wife Anne-Mette (born 1958) married in 1978 and have three children: Henrik Fogh Rasmussen (born 1979), Maria (born 1981) and Christina (born 1984).

Rasmussen also has six grandchildren.

He matriculated in languages and social studies from Viborg Cathedral School, in 1969–1972.

Rasmussen was first elected to the Folketing in 1978 and served in various ministerial positions, including Minister of Tax (1987–1992) and Minister of Economic Affairs (1990–1992).

and studied economics at the University of Aarhus, graduating in 1978.

He has been active in politics most of his life and has authored several books about taxation and government structure.

He has held positions in government and opposition throughout his career, first winning a seat in the Folketing (Danish parliament) in 1978.

In general, Rasmussen is in favour of centralisation, privatisation and limiting the size of government.

From 1987 to 1990 he was Minister for Taxation and from 1990 Minister for Economy and Taxation in the Conservative-led Poul Schlüter government.

However, his views moved towards the political centre through the 1990s.

In 1992 Rasmussen resigned from his ministerial posts after a report from a commission of inquiry had decided that he had provided the Folketing with inaccurate and incomplete information regarding his decision to postpone payment of several bills from Regnecentralen and Kommunedata from one accounting year to the next.

Rasmussen disagreed with the findings of the commission, but faced with the threat of a motion of no confidence, he left his posts voluntarily.

In his early career, Rasmussen was a strident critic of the welfare state, writing the classical liberal book From Social State to Minimal State in 1993.

Rasmussen wrote the book From Social State to Minimal State (Fra socialstat til minimalstat) in 1993, in which he advocated an extensive reform of the Danish welfare system along classic liberal lines.

In particular, he favours lower taxes and less government interference in corporate and individual matters.

In 1993 he was awarded the Adam Smith award by the libertarian society Libertas, partly because of this book.

He was elected the leader of the conservative-liberal party Venstre in 1998 and headed a centre-right coalition with the Conservative People's Party which took office in November 2001 and won its second and third terms in February 2005 and in November 2007.

Rasmussen's government relied on the Danish People's Party for support, keeping with the Danish tradition of minority government.

His government introduced tougher limits on immigration and a freeze on tax rates (skattestoppet in Danish).

Certain taxes were lowered, but his coalition partners in the Conservative People's Party repeatedly argued for more tax cuts and a flat tax rate at no higher than 50%.

Rasmussen's government implemented an administrative reform reducing the number of municipalities (kommuner) and replacing the thirteen counties (amter) with five regions which he referred to as "the biggest reform in thirty years".

He authored several books about taxation and government structure.

His Liberal (Venstre) Party won power in the November 2001 election, defeating the Social Democratic government of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and enabling him to form his first cabinet.

As an amateur cyclist, Rasmussen completed part of the notorious Alpe d'Huez stage of the 2008 Tour de France the day after the professional race took place.

His attendance at Le Tour was at the invitation of Danish former cyclist Bjarne Riis.

He is of no relation to either his predecessor Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, nor his successor Lars Løkke Rasmussen as Prime Minister of Denmark.

He resigned as Prime Minister in April 2009 to become Secretary General of NATO, a military alliance that was expanding into Eastern Europe.

He aggressively pushed NATO in new directions that extended far beyond the traditional roles of containment of the USSR and directing the Cold War in Europe.

His term ended 30 September 2014.

He became a private consultant on the international stage.

He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network (ELN).

He received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2017.