Biography of BDF Honorary Chairman Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Uffe Ellemann Jensen, Foreign Minister of Denmark 1982-1993
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark from 1982-1993. He was leader of the Danish Liberal Party (“Venstre”) from 1984-1998 and President of the European Liberals (ELDR) from 1995-2000.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen took a master’s degree in Political Economy at the University of Copenhagen. He worked several years as a newspaper journalist and was editor-in-chief of the Danish financial daily “Borsen.” For five years, Uffe was a political and economic commentator and newscaster on Danish TV.
When he left journalism to pursue politics in 1976, he made a rapid ascent through the party ranks. Elected to parliament in 1977, he was appointed political spokesman for the Liberal Party in 1978, and minister for Foreign Affairs in 1983. He became party leader in 1994. He was president of the European Liberal Party (ELDR) 1994-2000.
After leaving parliament in 2001, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen has divided his time between international activities, as an activist board member in Danish and international companies, and writing. He has authored several books on economics and politics and his “Impressions – not Memoirs” – became an instant bestseller in Denmark.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was the co-founder of Baltic Development Forum and led the organisation as Chairman from its beginning in 1993 until Mr Ellemann-Jensen turned 70 years in the autumn of 2011. From November 2011 he is Honorary Chairman of BDF and in this capacity he continues advocating the abolition of borders and obstacles to the fulfillment of his dream, the Baltic Sea Region as a new growth center in the new Europe and the world.
Mr. Ellemann-Jensen is member of several boards of a number of Danish and international companies in the region. He is chairman of BankInvest, a Danish investment and venture capital group, and member of the board of The Royal Theatre and Opera, Copenhagen. He is also a trustee of Reuters Founders Share Company in London and a board member of the International Crisis Group.
The Danish government appointed him the chairman of a newly formed Danish Center for International Studies and Human Rights in 2002-05. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gdansk. In 1993, he received the Hansa Prize, and in 1987 he was awarded the Robert Schumann Prize. He became Adjunct Professor at the Copenhagen Business School in 2006.
Born on 1 November 1941 in Haarby on the Island of Funen, son of Jens Peter Jensen, journalist and politician, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen is married to Alice Vestergaard, journalist, Former Head of the Copenhagen News department of TV2, Denmark. They have four children.
