Thank you Steen

I've just been told that Prof Steen Treumer from Copenhagen University passed away. We all knew his disease would take him sooner than it should but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this quick. Only last May we were making plans for meeting up in Copenhagen when I get there next week as he lived across my office at CBS. It stinks and it hurts.

It's fair to say Steen had an outsized importance in my career, bearing in mind I never worked directly with him. My first workshop during the Ph.D? Organised by him at CBS. My second international conference presenting? Organised by him. My first international conference after finishing my Ph.D? Prodded by him to apply. My admission to the European Procurement Law Network? Pushed for by him.

I owe him a number of breaks as well as moments of academic support in the wee years of my career, which were incredibly helpful while a certain someone was busy taking pot shots at me. I'm also grateful for his patience with my youthful exuberance (brashness, in fact) which never seemed to rile him up.

Steen was the external examiner on my Ph.D thesis. His criticism was sharp, but fair and he started the defense with a question not about the thesis itself but a quote I used from Moltke ("No plan survives contact with the enemy") in the intro. He simply quizzed me if the citation belong to the uncle or the nephew as both had been generals. In the true spirit of 'fake it till you make it' I guessed the uncle. He smiled and from then on all went swimmingly. We concluded the defense and had a meal with the internal examiner from Nottingham (Ping Wang) before adjourning to the staff common room in the law school where we downed a bottle of prosecco between us two. Fun times.

I know views about Steen varied widely - his move from CBS to KU was rocky to say the least - and can only speak from my vantage point. He was there when I needed and I remain grateful to this day for his mentoring and support. Tak Steen.