Bo Lidegaard


Bo Lidegaard is a Danish historian, diplomat, author and editor in chief of daily broadsheet newspaper Politiken.

Early life and education

Lidegaard is the son of authors Mads Lidegaard and Else Lidegaard, and is the brother of Danish political figure Martin Lidegaard. Bo Lidegaard graduated from Gentofte Statsskole in 1976, and became cand. phil. in history at the University of Copenhagen in 1984. He received his Ph.D. after completing a dissertation on Henrik Kauffmann in 1997.

Career

Lidegaard has authored a number of books on Danish history.
Lidegaard started his diplomatic career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1984. He served at Danish representations in Geneva and Paris, before leaving the foreign service in 2000. In 2005 he joined the Ministry of the State, as Permanent Under-Secretary of State, initially heading the Foreign and Security Affairs section, and was later in charge of the Climate Change secretariat. During the build-up to COP 15, he headed the Danish overarching coordination secretariat, he proposed the development of what would become the controversial "Danish Text". In April 2011 Lidegaard accepted the offer to succeed deceased Tøger Seidenfaden as editor in chief of Politiken.

Other activities