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Janez Drnovsek Ph.D., Prime Minister

Dr Janez Drnovsek was born on 17 May 1950 in Celje. He graduated in economics at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Economics. In 1986, he finished his doctoral studies in economic science at the Faculty of Economics and Business in Maribor. In 1994, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Boston and in 1999, an honorary doctorate from the Illinois Wesleyan University.

After a successful career in banking, Dr Drnovsek was elected as the Slovene representative in the collective presidency of the former Yugoslavia at the first free and democratic elections in April 1989. From May 1989 to May 1990 he was the Head of the Presidency of the former Yugoslavia. In September 1989, he presided over the Summit of the Non-Aligned in Belgrade. During Slovenia's independence negotiations, Dr Drnovsek was the principal negotiator between the Slovene leadership and the leaders of the former Yugoslavia and the high command of the Yugoslav People's Army. In July 1991, he successfully negotiated the final withdrawal of the Yugoslav Federal Army from Slovenia.

In March 1992, Dr Drnovsek became the president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDS) of Slovenia. In April of the same year, the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia elected him Prime Minister, only the second person to hold this position in the newly independent Slovenia. Following a parliamentary election, which was convincingly won by the LDS, Dr Drnovsek was again elected Prime Minister in January 1993 and formed a coalition government together with the Slovene Christian Democrats, the United List of Social Democrats and the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia. At the 1994 party congress in Bled, Dr Drnovsek united under his leadership the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Slovenia, the Green Party of Slovenia and the Socialist Party of Slovenia as the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. Dr Drnovsek started his third mandate as Prime Minister in January 1997, when he brought together the current government coalition between the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, the Slovene People's Party and the Democratic Party of Slovene Pensioners. He was Prime Minister until 7 June 2000. When the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia won the parliamentary elections on 15 October 2000, Dr Drnovsek formed the present coalition between the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, United List of Social democrats of Slovenia, SLS+SKD Slovenian People's Party and the Democratic Party of Slovene Pensioners, and was on 16 November 2000 confirmed by Parliament as Prime Minister for the fourth time.

During his years of political activity, Dr Drnovsek has taken part in many international meetings, conferences and forums with participants from the highest levels - presiding over, among others, the CEFTA summit in September 1997 in PortoroI. For his achievements and personal contribution to Slovenia's successful transition to democracy and its development into a democratically and economically stable country, as well as towards its inclusion into the European and international communities, Dr Drnovsek has received a number of international awards, such as Le prix de la Méditerranée (Crans Montana Forum, Malta, October 1995), the award of the Fund for American Studies (American Institute of Political and Economic Systems, Prague, August 1998) and the Dialogo Europeo award (Madrid, November 1998).

Dr Drnovsek is a frequent guest of honour and lecturer at prestigious international establishments and universities including the Diplomatic School at the Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington, the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington, the Cercle Gaulois in Brussels, the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) in Paris, the Institute of International Questions and Foreign Politics in Madrid, Chatham House in London, Trinity College in Dublin, the Institute of International Relations in Buenos Aires, the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs in Wellington, the Diplomatic Academy of the Mexican Foreign Ministry in Ciudad de Mexico. He is also the author of numerous articles in the fields of credit control and monetary policy, as well as on international financial relations, in which he has focused on the world loan crisis. Dr Drnovsek speaks English, French and Spanish, German and Serbocroatian.