Mitja Gaspari (born 25 November 1951) is a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, banker, and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He served as Minister for Economic Development in the government of

Borut Pahor Borut Pahor (; born 2 November 1963) is a Slovenian politician who served as President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2008 to 2012. A longtime member and former president of the Social D ...

Early life and education

Gaspari was born in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

. He studied

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana (, , ), abbreviated UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 38,000 enrolled students. The university has 23 faculties and three art academies with approximately 4,000 teaching and re ...

and has graduated in monetary economics from the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

Faculty of Economics.

Career

Career in the public sector

Gaspari worked in the

National Bank of Yugoslavia The National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBY, ) was the central bank of Yugoslavia, succeeding the National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia in Belgrade in 1920. It was formally known as the National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until ...

, where he became vice-governor in 1988. In September 1991, he became a senior advisor in the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. Between 1992 and 2000, he served as Slovenian

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

in the governments of

Janez Drnovšek Janez Drnovšek (; 17 May 1950 – 23 February 2008) was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992–2002, with a short break in 2000) and President of Slovenia (20 ...

. Although he was considered close to the ruling

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (, LDS) is a social-liberal political party in Slovenia. Between 1992 and 2004, it (and its main predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party) was the largest (and ruling) party in the country. In the 2011 Slovenian pa ...

, he never joined the party. Gaspari served as the governor of the

Bank of Slovenia The Bank of Slovenia () is the national central bank for Slovenia within the Eurosystem. It was the Slovenian central bank from 1991 to 2006, issuing the tolar. Since 2014, it has also been Slovenia's national competent authority within European ...

between 2001 and 2007. During his mandate, Slovenia adopted the

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

as its official currency.

Political career

Gaspari was among the candidates at the

2007 Slovenian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Slovenia in October and November 2007 to elect the successor to Janez Drnovšek. France Cukjati, the President of the National Assembly, called the elections on 20 June 2007. Seven candidates competed in the ...

, supported by the

. He received 24.09% of votes in the first round, finishing third. In 2012, he was nominated as Slovenia's candidate to succeed

José Manuel González-Páramo José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

on the

Executive Board of the European Central Bank The Executive Board of the European Central Bank is the organ responsible for implementing monetary policy for the Eurozone in line with the guidelines and decisions taken by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. The executive boar ...

; the position eventually went to Yves Mersch.Trading executives
''

European Voice ''Politico Europe'' (stylized as ''POLITICO Europe'') is the European edition of the American news organization ''Politico'' reporting on political affairs of the European Union. Its headquarters are located in Brussels with additional offices in ...

'', March 14, 2012. In 2008, Gaspari was appointed Minister for Economic Development in the left wing government of

References

1951 births 20th-century Slovenian economists Governors of the Bank of Slovenia Lawyers from Ljubljana Living people University of Belgrade Faculty of Economics alumni Ministers for development and European affairs of Slovenia Ministers of finance of Slovenia Liberal Democracy of Slovenia politicians Businesspeople from Ljubljana Yugoslav lawyers Yugoslav economists {{Slovenia-politician-stub