Robert Golob (born 23 January 1967) is a Slovenian businessman and politician, serving as

Prime Minister of Slovenia The prime minister of Slovenia, officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia ( sl, Predsednik Vlade Republike Slovenije), is the head of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. There have been nine officeholders sinc ...

and leader of the Freedom Movement since 2022.

Early life and education

Golob obtained his PhD in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

University of Ljubljana The University of Ljubljana ( sl, Univerza v Ljubljani, , la, Universitas Labacensis), often referred to as UL, is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. It has approximately 39,000 enrolled students. History Beginnings Although certain ...

in 1994. After his studies, he was a post-doctoral

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Business career

In 2004, Golob co-founded an energy trading company

GEN-I Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line plain old telephone service, telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet service provider, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digi ...

, which is state-controlled, and where he remained chairman until 2021.

Political career

Between May 1999 and June 2000, Golob was the State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the government led by prime minister

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 (200 ...

of the

LDS LDS may refer to: Organizations * LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah, US Religion * Latter Day Saint movement (LDS movement), a collection of independent church groups **The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest group within t ...

party. In 2002, he was elected to the City Council of

Nova Gorica A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramat ...

, a position he held until 2022. In 2011, Golob joined the

Positive Slovenia Positive Slovenia ( sl, Pozitivna Slovenija, PS) was a centre-left political party in Slovenia, following April 2014 led by founder Zoran Janković. The party was founded under the name ''Zoran Janković's List – Positive Slovenia''. It wa ...

party, founded by the mayor of

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Zoran Janković. In 2013–14, with the rising tensions within the party between its founder and chairman Zoran Janković and Prime Minister

Alenka Bratušek Alenka Bratušek (; born 31 March 1970) is a Slovenian politician. She was Prime Minister of Slovenia from March 2013 until May 2014, the first woman in Slovenia to hold this position. She was president ''pro tempore'' of the Positive Slovenia pa ...

, Golob played a mediating role between the two factions. With the final break within the party in April 2014, he joined the breakaway

Party of Alenka Bratušek The Party of Alenka Bratušek ( sl, Stranka Alenke Bratušek, SAB) was a political party in Slovenia. The party was founded on 31 May 2014 as the Alliance of Alenka Bratušek (, ZaAB). The party was formed by Alenka Bratušek, who resigned as Pr ...

(SAB), becoming one of its vice-presidents. After the poor performance of SAB in the subsequent 2014 election, winning only four seats, he moved away from politics on the national level, remaining active only at the local level in the municipality of Nova Gorica; he chaired the neighborhood assembly of

Kromberk Kromberk (; it, Moncorona, german: Cronberg bei Görz) is a settlement in the Municipality of Nova Gorica in western Slovenia. Together with its two satellite settlements of Ajševica and Loke, it forms one of the four major suburbs of Nova Gor ...

- Loke between 2010 and 2014, remaining one of its members until 2022. When his mandate as chairman of GEN-I ended in 2021, and after not receiving another one, Golob decided to take an active role in politics again. In January 2022, he took over the small extraparliamentary Green Actions Party and renamed it to Freedom Movement. On 24 April 2022, in the 2022 Slovenian parliamentary election, the Freedom Movement won 41 seats in the 90-seat

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

. On 25 May 2022, Robert Golob was elected by the parliament as Prime Minister of Republic of Slovenia.

References

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Golob, Robert 1967 births Living people No local image but image on Wikidata Slovenian businesspeople University of Ljubljana alumni People from Nova Gorica Positive Slovenia politicians Prime Ministers of Slovenia Fulbright alumni