After
his military service in the Royal Danish Navy in Greenland, Ulrik
Federspiel was educated at the University of Aarhus where he graduated
in political science and at the University of Pennsylvania -
Philadelphia where he received the John Boyer Memorial Scholarship and
earned his Master's degree in international relations.
In 1971, Ulrik
Federspiel joined the Danish Foreign Service assigned to EC-matters. He
was posted in London in 1977 as First Secretary for political affairs.
In 1981, he was appointed Special Assistant to the Permanent Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen. In 1984, he became Deputy
Chief of Mission at the Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.
In 1989, he returned
to Denmark to work with the Foreign Minister and a Foreign Service
Commission in reorganizing the Ministry. Upon completion of the
reorganization in 1991, the government appointed Mr. Federspiel
Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Secretary of
State) and in 1993, the Prime Minister appointed him his Chief of Staff
that included serving as Secretary to Her Majesty the Queen in the
Council of Ministers. He served as chairman of various Government
committees, including the EU-Summit Committee.
In 1997, Ulrik Federspiel became Ambassador to Ireland and in 2000 Ambassador to the United States of America.
In addition to his
diplomatic and governmental careers, Ambassador Federspiel has
continued his academic endeavors. He has been a senior lecturer and
censor at the University of Copenhagen, visiting lecturer at the George
Washington University, Washington, D.C., a member of the Governing
Board of the University of Copenhagen and the Board of the
Danish-American Foundation, co-editor of the yearbook of the Danish
Foreign Policy Institute and of the Yearbook of the Danish Court and
Government. He is the author of a book on the Danish European Union
debate and several articles and is a frequent lecturer on foreign
policy. Since 1997 he has served as a member of the Advisory Board of
Humanity in Action, a student exchange program and since 2001 he has
been an Honorary Trustee of the Crown Prince Frederik Fund at Harvard
University.
Ulrik Federspiel was
born in Copenhagen in 1943 and brought up in an international home. His
father Per Federspiel was a Cabinet Minister, Member of Parliament,
President of the Council of Europe and Member of the European
Parliament. After the Second World War, Per Federspiel was awarded the
American Medal of Freedom and an honorary Knighthood; Commander of the
British Empire.
Ulrik Federspiel has
been married to Birgitte Hartnack Federspiel since 1971. She is a
Doctor of Medicine and a Pathologist and served as a consultant and
lecturer at the Pathology Department, University Hospital at Herlev,
Copenhagen. She is now a Visiting Scientist at the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C. She spent nine years of her
childhood in the US when her father was a professor of Philosophy at
various universities.
Ulrik
Federspiel is a member of the Honorary Roll of the First Troop
Philadelphia City Cavalry and a recipient of the Honorary Placquette of
the Veterans of the Danish World War II Resistance Fighters.
He has received the following decorations:
Commander of 1st Degree of the Order of the Dannebrog
Memorial Medal of Queen Ingrid
Grand Cross of: Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway and Portugal.
