Digital Government Excellence

CHAPTER 12Lars Frelle-Petersen: Denmark

 

Lars Frelle-Petersen has served as the Permanent Secretary of Denmark's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities since 2020.

In 2012–2017, Lars was the Director General at the Danish Agency for Digitisation (DIGST) under the Ministry of Finance, responsible for the Danish e-government strategy and its implementation across the public sector. He then led the digital transformation area at the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI), Denmark's largest business organization, as its Deputy Director General in 2018–2020.

Prior to DIGST, Lars worked for twelve years in various roles of growing responsibility in the Ministry of Finance in Denmark on large-scale initiatives and strategy for digitization and public sector efficiency. He has a master of science degree in public administration.

 

 

 

Lars was one of the first digital government leaders I met from outside of my own country. I had just entered the field in Estonia and made my first foreign trip destination to be Denmark as soon as I could to go see and learn from what they were up to there.

Denmark was already known for the level of digital maturity in their public sector. Starting in 2011, they were making new waves internationally. DIGST, the agency had just been set up and it captivated everyone, because Denmark had decided to make the digital channels mandatory for citizens ...