Janez Podobnik

Who is Janez Podobnik?

Janez Podobnik is a Slovenian conservative politician.

Since July 1, 2013, he is Acting Director General of International Centre for Promotion of Enterprises and will continue as such till he agrees to call the meeting of the governing body of ICPE for appointment of a Director General.

He was born in the small town of Cerkno in western Slovenia, in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He studied medicine at the University of Ljubljana, where he graduated in 1984. Between 1984 and 1990, he worked as a general physician in Idrija.

He entered politics during the period of democratization known as the Slovenian spring. In 1990, he joined the Slovenian People's Party and became elected as first non-Communist mayor of Idrija after World War II. In 1992, he was elected to the Slovenian National Assembly. During the coalition government between the Slovenian People's Party and the left liberal Liberal Democracy of Slovenia, Podobnik served as chairman of the National Assembly. In 1997, he unsuccessfully ran as president of Slovenia, but was defeated in a run off by the incumbent Milan Kučan.