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