Alfred Tacke

In 1990, following his election as Minister President of Lower Saxony, Gerhard Schröder appointed Tacke to the Lower Saxony State Chancellery as Head of the Department for Economic and Structural Policy. In 1991, Tacke replaced Gunter Kappert as civil servant State Secretary in the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Technology and Transport. In 1998, under Gerhard Schröder, he became Werner Müller's State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.^[1]

From 2000, he was also responsible for preparing the G8 World Economic Summits as the Chancellor's "Sherpa (chief negotiator)". The State Secretary was regarded as a pragmatist and a good expert on the energy sector. In 2002, he gave ministerial approval for the takeover of Ruhrgas AG by E.ON on behalf of Economics Minister Müller.^[2]

In April 2004, Tacke was considered as a possible successor to Ernst Welteke as President of the German Bundesbank.^[3] At the end of 2004, Tacke gave up his post as State Secretary and became chairman of the Board of Management of the electricity supply company STEAG, a wholly owned subsidiary of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, in which E.ON in turn holds a stake. From the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2008, he was chairman of the management board of Evonik Steag GmbH. From September 2006 to the end of 2008, Tacke was also a member of the executive board of RAG Beteiligungs-AG, which was renamed Evonik Industries AG in September 2007.^[4]

In 2009, he became a member of the "Steering Council for Corporate Finance" at the Wirtschaftsfonds Deutschland (German Economic Fund).^[5]

He is the father of television presenter Sarah Tacke.^[6]