Matei-Agathon Dan (17 September 1949 – 20 July 2023) was a Romanian economist and politician. A member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(PSD), he was a member of the

Romanian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house in Romania's Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Romania, parliament. It has 312 regular seats to which Chamber of Deputies, deputies are elected by direct popular vote using party-list proportiona ...

for

Bacău County Bacău County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeș-Făget, in Transylvania. Geography This county has a total area of . In the western part of the county there a ...

from 1992 to 2004. In the

Nicolae Văcăroiu Nicolae Văcăroiu (; born 5 December 1943) is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD), who served as Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister between 1992 and 1996. Before the Rom ...

cabinet, he was

Tourism Minister The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) * Ministry of Tour ...

from 1992 to 1996, and again held that office in the

Adrian Năstase Adrian Năstase (; born 22 June 1950) is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the prime minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004. He competed in the 2004 Romanian presidential elect ...

cabinet from December 2000 to June 2003, when responsibility for Tourism was assigned to Miron Mitrea.

Biography

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

on 17 September 1949, Dan studied Finance and Accounting at the Academy of Economic Studies, graduating in 1971. Before the 1989 Revolution, he was economic director at the Institute for Research and Technological Engineering, Planning and Production of Non-ferrous and Rare Metals in Bucharest. After the fall of Communism, he was one of the founders of the PDSR (PSD from 2001), as well as a member of its National Council. In 1991–92 he served as sub-secretary of state, dealing with government relations with trade unions and management.Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site
retrieved 2 March 2009 Also in 1991, he won a scholarship in macroeconomics in Japan, allowing him to see first-hand how a free-market economy works, including using an ATM for the first time. During his first stint as Tourism Minister (1992–1996), Dan was also vice president of the

World Tourism Organization The United Nations World Tourism Organization or UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which promotes responsible, sustainable and universally-accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. Othe ...

's general assembly. He was a member of the Chamber's Foreign Policy Committee, and active in the Parliamentary Assembly of the

Black Sea Economic Cooperation The Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is a regional international organization focusing on multilateral political and economic initiatives aimed at fostering cooperation, peace, stability and prosperity in the Black Sea ...

. His second time in government (2000–2003), when he was appointed by his high-school classmate and friend Adrian Năstase, Dan drew attention for strongly promoting a

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

-style theme park, "Dracula Park", which ultimately was not built. He also worked on promoting skiing in the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

cruises,

Romanian wine Romania is one of the world's largest wine producers and sixth-largest among European wine-producing countries, after Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Portugal. It produced more wine than New Zealand and Austria but is lesser-known on the world ...

, countryside vacations and

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

. In January 2009, Dan quit the PSD in order to become secretary general and president of the Employer Confederation of Romanian Industry."Dan Matei Agathon s-a autosuspendat din PSD" ("Dan Matei Agathon Has Suspended Himself from the PSD")
''Ziua'', 16 January 2009; retrieved 2 March 2009 Dan and his wife Otilia, whom he married in 1971, had one son, Tudor.Despina Ponomarenco

''Bucharest Business Week'', 17 December 2001; retrieved 2 March 2009 Dan died in July 2023 at age 73.

Notes

External links

Personal blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dan, Matei-Agathon 1949 births 2023 deaths Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Ministers of regional development of Romania Politicians from Bucharest Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies alumni