Founder and leader of the Tvind movement since the late 1960s. With others, he founded the Travelling Folk High School in 1970 and The Necessary Teacher Training College in 1972. Between 1970 and 1979 he oversaw Tvind's expansion into a schools movement, volunteer organisation, clothes collection enterprise and international landholder. In 1979 he went 'underground' and remained 'missing' for 22 years. During this time, living secretly in Denmark and abroad, he planned Tvind's expansion as a business empire and oversaw the acquisition of huge property holdings in the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and the United States. In 2001 he was revealed to be living in a $7m luxury apartment in Miami. In 2002 he was arrested on an Interpol warrant in Los Angeles and extradited to face trial on fraud charges in Denmark. After a three year trial, a Danish lower court returned a 'not guilty' verdict in August 2006, but the Danish public prosecutor announced an appeal. Petersen has since fled Denmark and is believed to be living in Mexico.

Petersen is charismatic, ambitious, persuasive and driven. He is generally accepted to be the inspiration of the Tvind movement. He is considered a guru by some and a bully by others. Within the Tvind heirarchy, as well as appointing himself leader, he has also made sure he holds the key positions of controller of the Distribution Group (which holds the power of deciding where and how Teachers work) and leading the TG Economy (which control's the purse strings of the multi-million dollar Tvind empire).