Tribute to Professor Steen Treumer

Professor Sue Arrowsmith pays tribute to Professor Steen Treumer, who sadly passed away in August 2021

Professor Steen Treumer, who sadly passed away in August 2021 at the age of 55, was a longstanding friend and collaborator of the PPRG and Assistant Editor of the Public Procurement Law Review. Below we reproduce the short tribute to Professor Treumer, written by Professor Sue Arrowsmith in her capacity as Editor of that Review, which will appear in the forthcoming edition of the Review (Issue 6 of 2021).

Steen was a leading and distinguished scholar in the field of public procurement law and one of the very first, completing his prize-winning PhD on equal treatment in public procurement back in 1999 when only a tiny handful of scholars were working on EU public procurement law. He then went on to work at Aalborg University and Copenhagen Business School, where he served as Head of the Department of Law before moving to the University of Copenhagen. His academic writing in public procurement was distinguished by both its intellectual rigour and its balanced and practical approach, with an enduring quality such that many of his earlier pieces on EU procurement law (for example, on the “leverage” principle, on flexibility, and on selecting firms to tender) still feature among the “must-reads” for today’s scholars and practitioners, despite rapid legal change.

Steen was associated with the Public Procurement Law Review for more than 20 of its 30 years. After several years as a valued contributor and peer reviewer who joined the board as a general member in 2000, Steen was appointed Assistant Editor in 2006. He served in that role with distinction for 15 years with particular responsibility for articles relating to EU procurement law, dealing with authors, soliciting peer reviews, contributing to editorial decisions, and encouraging contributions from promising new scholars. He brought to these standard duties of the role the dedication, care and passion that was the hallmark of all his work, but also made a notable contribution by putting together several “special issues” of the review to examine current topics in European procurement law.

But Steen’s contribution to public procurement law was not limited to his own work as writer and editor. He was a leader in promoting and cultivating public procurement scholarship both in Europe and globally, including through his involvement in the 2008-2011 EU-funded Asia Link programme on public procurement regulation for developing procurement research and teaching around the world - first with Copenhagen Business School and later bringing in the University of Copenhagen - and through his role in many edited collections on procurement law. He was also very prominent in developing the law in practice and in fostering engagement between academic and practitioners, including through his own work as a practitioner, through his membership of the Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement, and through his participation as organiser and speaker for numerous events at which, among other things, he disseminated to the wider community the work being done in academia.

On a personal level Steen was a wonderfully warm and engaging person, always good company, with time for everyone and passionate about his work, even after he became seriously ill. I first got to know him when he spent a period as a visiting researcher to the Public Procurement Research Group – now at the University of Nottingham but at that time based at Aberystwyth University – in the 1990s in connection with his PhD research.  As well as working closely together on the PPLR, we subsequently collaborated on many major projects and events, most notably the Asia Link project, a book on competitive dialogue, and the Global Revolutions series of conferences.  Such projects are never without challenges: two that stand out in my mind are the disruption to the 2010 “Asia Link” edition of the Global Revolution conference at Nottingham, resulting from the closure of European skies three days before the event following the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland; and the severance of external communications with Xinjiang province in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, requiring a highly creative solution to engaging with our Asia Link partners at Xinjiang University.  However, in these as in many other situations, Steen’s professionalism and good humour helped ensure a successful outcome within the minimum stress on the project and its partners. I will forever be grateful to Steen for stepping to hold a very successful “second edition” of the 2010 Global Revolution event in Copenhagen, enabling those who missed the first one to participate in the end.

Steen will be very much missed as a friend and colleague by all those who were lucky enough to know and work with him, and the procurement community will be very much poorer for his loss. All those involved with this Review offer our heartfelt condolences to all his family, friends and colleagues.

Professor Sue Arrowsmith

Editor, Public Procurement Law Review