Below is the informal story of what I've been up to – in words, photos and music from my scrapbook.
I was born and raised at a smallholding hobby farm near the village of Køng on the Danish island of Funen - an idyllic countryside setting with rolling hills, often called The Garden of Denmark. (Think thatched roofs, half-timbered walls, duck pond and a lush garden with old trees.)
Being the youngest of four, I found myself in the loving hands of teacher parents living their dream of an upbringing for their children in nature with animals - far away from inner city troubles and the cold war realities of the 70s.
In particular I loved the farm's pride, a red Massey Ferguson tractor - the classic cute "Model 35". Many hours were spent on that helping out on the farm.
In short, I enjoyed my childhood - spoilt as only a baby brother can be... flooded in affection by a warm loving mother and an ambitious and hard-to-impress father. Plus a lot of tickles from my older siblings.
Photo 1974 (at the farm "Havstedbæk" dating back to 1794) - Helping bringing the harvest home - and having clearly spotted a much larger tractor passing by.
After high school I studied journalism in Aarhus (DK) at the Danish School of Journalism (DMJX). I also spent a term in Brighton (UK) studying East European Afffairs at University of Sussex followed by an internship at the United Nations in New York City.
As a journalist trainee at Jyllands-Posten, I had the privilege of being sent to Moscow in 1988 to take part in covering the historic summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev - the one with the famous emotional speech by Reagan calling Gorbachev 'a personal friend'.
Oh boy, did we all get the shivers?! The healing of Europe (the world) had begun (for a while, at least).
Photo: 1988 (Moscow) - A very young and eager trainee reporter at the Red Square in Moscow during the historic Reagan/Gorbachev Summit.
After graduation I had the priviledge of serving as a foreign correspondent for the national Danish newspaper Politiken for eight years. Initially four years posted to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and then later to London for four years. Loved every single day of those assignments, all the experiences and people I met.
Among the inspiring people I interviewed in Eastern Europe were dissidents (turned heads of states) like Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa. Spectacular men; one a playwright and straight from prison to becoming Czech president. The other a dyslexic electrician, and Polands first democratically elected president. They were as different as you can imagine but both inspiring.
From a young age I was inspired by British hacks like John Simpson, Jon Snow, Kirsty Wark, Andrew Marr, and Jeremy Paxman - and, loved authors such as Tom Wolfe, Tom Kristensen and Ernest Hemingway for their writing style.
I came to respect independent public service media institutions such as the BBC and Channel 4 for their role in trying to keep the world a sane place with impartial reporting and a mission to enlighten and educate.
I became a public service media guy to the bone - applauding critical, independent and impatial journalism.
This seems more important now than ever since social media has taken the lid off the sewer - with raw instincts and insults flying, fake news bombardments, and algo assisted mass manipulation (one TikTok algo in China trying to make young people smarter, and an entirely differet algo for the West making us dumber... a kind of undeclared soft warfare, a battle of civilisations).
Add to that the dramatic growth of the global spin army - in politics as well as in business and government. Serious stuff with serious implications looking ahead. All happening while real journalism (putting spotlight on dark matters) is under pressure, and many media outlets increasingly are becoming biased and less impartial. How did we get to this?!
Photo: 1998 (Odense + London) - After eight years as a newspaper correspondent, I joined the national TV news in Denmark, TV 2 Nyhederne, as a foreign affairs reporter; here seen reporting from London during the Danish EU referendum in May 1998 (aged 31) at election night. >
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After a decade in Journalism, I changed tracks in 1998 and became an internet entrepreneur in the early days of the web with a mission to change healthcare together with a friend since high school, Carl, a medical doctor.
We founded NetDoctor.com, an independent medical encyclopaedia with health information sourced from some of the most respected doctors across Britain, Germany and Scandinavia - all written in layman's language.
The potential power of the internet to democratise everything, including healthcare, was too excting to ignore. We wanted to provide credible and independent health information written so everyone could understand it. The barrier for publishing had gone. And we could reach the whole world, and update on the fly. We found it rather mindblowing.
Eventually NetDoctor became a well-established brand in several countries, used by millions, and today owned and run by renowned publishing houses such as Hearst Media in London, Burda in Germany, and Bonniers in Scandinavia.
In 2001, I rejoined the media world as an executive of the most watched national Danish public service broadcaster TV 2. Aged 34 I found myself as a member of the management team and programing board - tasked with digital innovation for six exciting years. I loved the challenges and my fired-up colleagues with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit.
In December 2004 we launched one of Europe's first TV and film streaming services, TV 2 Sputnik (later in 2012 renamed TV 2 Play). Long before the break-through of Netflix or Apple TV. Were we upbeat? You bet. Today, years later, it's got over one million paying subscribers (in a country of six million people).
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In 2015, my doctor friend Carl and I (with our new co-founding playmate Kristoffer) enbarked on a new quest to help people with a lifestyle related condition to make a U-turn in their life and stop the progression of their disease. We founded Liva Health with offices in Copenhagen and London and went on a mission to fight Type-2 Diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease through behavious change programmes delivered through an app.
Photo: 2016 (London) - Partners in crime in innovating healthcare at the early days of Liva Health, from left Kristoffer From, Alex Ballantyne and Carl J. Brandt.
Patients also have access to a peer-to-peer support group of mentors, as well as digital tools to help turn back the clock on their disease.
In 2017 Liva's award-winning solution was selected by allmighty NHS England to help stop the costly growth in Type-2 Diabetes and obesity. Ever since, Liva's engagement with NHS England has grown. NHS GPs are referring patients to the Liva progremmes to help beat lifestyle related chronic conditions.
Liva Health is often invited to present clinical outcomes at conferences; here the Digital Health World Congress in Kensington, London.
Liva was recently awarded as "Healthcare IT Firm of The Year" in London by Health Investor Magazine. A lot to live up to...
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In my private life I live between a bolt hole on my Danish birth island Funen, and a flat in the Copenhagen district of Christianshavn (and am frequently returning to the London and Britain I learned to love while studying and working there.
In London I'm a trustee on the board of the London-based music promoter Nonclassical, founded in 2004 by composer Gabriel Prokofiev. Nonclassical is also a record label and an events producer presenting the best new classical, experimental and electronic music across genres with a special focus on supporting emerging artists.
Writing is still a big passion for me. I've sometimes been moonlighting as a writer and contributor for publications such as the Danish weekly Weekendavisen and the performing arts magazine, ISCENE.
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Modern jazz is also great passion of mine. In May 2010 I initiated re-opening the legendary jazz venue in Copenhagen, Jazzhus Montmartre, at Store Regnegade 19a after a 15 year absence of the famous club having roots going back to 1959. I seved as the venue's unpaid part-time CEO for ten years until 2020, and later has been engaged at board level together with my partner in crime for over 14 years, Michael Christiansen, the former CEO of The Royal Danish Theatre.
Montmartre has a special place in European jazz history going back to its first opening in 1959 as a magnet for great musicians like Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, and Ben Webster. They were just some of the many American jazz artists relocating to Copenhagen in the 1960 and 70s because of the attraction of club. It sadly folded in 1995 but in 2009 the original old location came up for grabs and that was too big a temptation for me to pass making it ready for a reopening night on May 1st 2010. (Read the full story here > )
Since I re-opened the legendary venue in May 2010 Jazzhus Montmartre has been staging live concerts 3-4 nights a week with world class artists and new talent. Come and visit!
The British newspaper The Guardian has declared Jazzhus Montmartre "one of the ten best jazz venues in Europe". >
Montmartre is blessed with the world's best Artistic Director, my dear friend (and Swedish jazz pianist) Jan Lundgren.
My personal jazz inspirations? I'm grateful to my older brother for all the records I often borrowed from his extensive collection - they impacted my music taste profoundly during the formative years. Here is a selection of some of the tracks I adore in particular: Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Nina Simone, Weather Report, Jackie Terrasson, Palle Mikkelborg, Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Jan Johansson, Jimmy Scott, Phronesis, Go Go Penguin, Girls In Airports, Morten Schantz, Entrance, Bo Stief, Oscar Peterson, Yusef Lateef, Gill Evans, Jakob Bro, Cæcilie Norby, Stan Getz, Sinne Eeg, Abdullah Ibrahim, Lars Danielsson, Lee Konitz, Melody Gardot, Jan Lundgren, Paolo Fresu, Jesper Bodilsen, Daniel Herskedal, John Surman, Josefine Cronholm, Arve Henriksen, Tord Gustavson, Trygve Seim, Mattias Eick and Jan Gabarek.
Photo: 1989 (Budapest) - A magic moment seeing Keith Jarrett live playing solo piano for the first time in a packed concert hall in Budapest, March 22, 1989 at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music.
In classical music I love composers such as Arvo Pärt, Bach, Chopin, Rued Langgaard, Erik Satie, Carl Nielsen, Purcell, Albinoni. Among contemporary composers in the cross-over land I especially treasure Max Richter, Philip Glass, Olafur Arnalds, and Nils Frahm.
Among other important records I bought over the years are Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, David Bowie, The Doors, Leonard Cohen, EW&F, Coldplay, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Beatles, Nick Cave, Savage Rose, Elbow, Mark Hollis, and Stevie Wonder.
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My Danish birth island Fyn (Funen) remains a special place to me. I love to relax and work from its beautiful coastline whenever I can.
I love the charming market town of Svendborg, dating back to 1253 - a great spot for peace, inspiration and sailing.
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In the worlds of visual art, performing art and words I'm especially fond of Sergei Sviatchenko, Auguste Rodin, Edward Munch, Joan Miro, Asger Jorn, Egon Schielé, Marlene Dumas, Picasso, Marina Abramovic, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Pina Bausch, Peeping Tom, NDT, David Hare, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Anton Chekhov, Michel Houellebecq, Paul Auster, and Julian Barnes.
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Two recent bold artistic experiences that made a deep impression were the installation at Aros Museum of Modern Art in Aarhus by Tony Matelli, "Fucked Couple" (left) >, and the contemporary dance performance "Viktor" by Pina Bausch (right), at Sadlers Wells in London. >
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In other words, I love life. So very fragile... and so little do we know. But then there's friendship and love. And the arts, nature, sailing, fine cuisine, dark chocolate, music, words, and the colour red!
As Woody Allen put it: "Life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering - and it's all over much too soon". >
I especially love the (rare) answer "I don't know". Tend to like people who do not always have all the answers to everything and remain somewhat humble in life.
I'm blessed having two grown-up sons that I love and adore. Both were born in London in the 90s while living and working there but they now live in Copenhagen. Love them to bits.
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Iceland and Italy are the two places that I never will tire of - need to get back there frequently. I've been to Iceland since I was a teenager when my older sister lived there and it got under my skin.
Photo: Sandvatn, Iceland.
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Thanks for stopping by, taking an interest and getting this far. See you out there.
Rune
The story of re-opening Jazzhus Montmartre >
Interview in Jazz Special Magazine >