Asker, also called Asker proper, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker together with the traditional Buskerud districts Røyken and Hurum; Asker proper constitutes the northern fourth and is part of the Greater Oslo Region. The administrative centre was the town of Asker, which remains so for the new larger municipality. Asker was established as a parish in the Middle Ages and as a municipality on 1 January 1838.

Erling Sven Lorentzen was a Norwegian shipowner and industrialist. He founded Aracruz Celulose in 1968. He was the widower of Princess Ragnhild, the eldest child of King Olav V of Norway. In addition to being a Norwegian princess, his wife was in the line of succession to the British throne and occupied the 18th place at the time of her birth. Erling Lorentzen was a member of the Lorentzen family of shipping magnates.