Father of the euro dies

last updated 8 January 2015

Faucon, France

Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European Central Bank, was found dead this week at his villa in the south of France. The 70-year-old Dutchman is believed to have suffered a heart attack and toppled into his pool, where he drowned. Duisenberg, who presided over the successful launch of the euro common currency in 1999, was considered the Alan Greenspan of Europe. He was famous for ignoring the fierce lobbying of various finance ministers in order to keep the currency stable. “Everything Duisenberg did, said, or possibly thought,” Amsterdam’s Volkskrant said, “was translated into currency exchange rates.”