Atli Dam

Atli Pætursson Dam (12 September 1932 – 7 February 2005) was Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands on five separate occasions, which is the longest period for any Faroese prime minister (løgmaður). He was prime minister in the periods: 1970–1981, 1985–1989 and 1991–1993.

He was born in Tvøroyri in 1932 as the son of Peter Mohr Dam and Sigrid Ragnhild, née Strøm. He was educated engineer in 1964 and worked for the Danish company Haldor Topsøe until he became prime minister in 1970. He was vise president of the Faroese Mortgage Institution (Føroya Realkreditt) from 1981–1985 and again from 1989 until his death.

He was elected to the Løgting in 1970, he was appointed Minister of Fisheries the same year, and in December of the same year he was appointed prime minister.

He was elected as one of two Faroese members of the Danish Folketing and was a member of the Folketing from 1987 to 1988 and 1990 to 1994.

Because of the financial crises of the Faroe Islands and because of health issues, Dam resigned as prime minister on 18 February 1993 and Marita Petersen took over. At the same time he left the post as chairman for the Socialist Democratic Party, Marita Petersen took over. Atli Dam had been prime minister for 16 years and member of the Løgting for 21 years at that time.

One of his biggest political achievements is probably his negotiations with the Danish prime minister in 1992 Mr. Poul Schlüter, which resulted in the Faroese underground and all natural resources which might be in the underground from late 1992 became Faroese property, before that it belonged to the Danish state.

He was not re-elected for the Løgting at the 1994 elections.