Ján Počiatek (born 16 September 1970) is a Slovak

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Early life and education

Počiatek speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

fluently and also has an advanced knowledge of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. Počiatek is a graduate of the

University of Economics in Bratislava The University of Economics in Bratislava ( sk, Ekonomická univerzita v Bratislave) is the oldest university of economics in Slovakia. History The university was established in 1940 as a private university under the name Vysoká obchodná ško ...

. He graduated in 1997 as a qualified engineer in economics.

Career

Počiatek served as

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

from 2006 to 2010, and as Minister of Transport, Construction, and Regional Development from 2012 to 2016, both in the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) ...

. Under his leadership, Slovakia agreed a 1.9-billion-euro ($2.1 billion) public-private partnership for a consortium led by Spanish infrastructure group

Ferrovial Ferrovial, S.A. (), previously Grupo Ferrovial, is a Spanish multinational company involved in the design, construction, financing, operation (DBFO) and maintenance of transport infrastructure and urban services. It is a publicly traded company ...

’s

Cintra Cintra, S.A. (Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, translated as Toll Transport Infrastructures) is one of the largest private developers of transport infrastructure in the world. Its assets are fundamentally toll roads and car parks, ...

unit to build two highways in the capital Bratislava.

Other activities

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution founded in 1991. As a multilateral developmental investment bank, the EBRD uses investment as a tool to build market economies. Initially fo ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2006-2010) * European Investment Bank (EIB), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (2006-2010)

Recognition

For his contribution in preparing Slovakia's entry into the

Eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro ( €) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU polic ...

, the international financial affairs publication ''

The Banker ''The Banker'' is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by ''The Financial Times'' Ltd. and edited in London, United Kingdom. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding Editor, Brend ...

'' named Počiatek as the "Best finance minister for the year 2008 in Europe."

Controversy

Počiatek caused controversy when he participated in a yacht trip on the Mediterranean organised by a private equity group accused of profiting from currency speculation before the koruna was revalued against the euro in May 2008. Pociatek denied wrongdoing but later apologised. By late 2008, opposition pressure was mounting again to dismiss Počiatek over his alleged mishandling of a court case involving state-owned lottery company Tipos. In 2019 video of Počiatek recorded through a candid camera in the prosecutor general's office (Dobroslav Trnka) was leaked, in this video Počiatek openly discussed and joked about corruption skills of Slovak National Party leader Ján Slota, and discussed with Trnka how to cover up the Tipos mishandling.

References