Jakovčić Ivan (Nino)

Jakovčić, Ivan (Nino), politician, entrepreneur (Poreč, 15 November 1957).

He attended primary and secondary school of economics in his hometown, and in 1976 he enrolled at the Faculty of Foreign Trade (now the Faculty of Economics), University of Zagreb, where he graduated in 1980. From 1981 to 1986 he worked in Pazin. company Pazinka in export and marketing, and in 1987 he went to Austria and began to engage in private entrepreneurship, which he continued in 1989 after returning to Croatia.

He became more serious in politics in 1991, when he was elected president of the Istrian Democratic Parliament (IDS) on July 7th. He was elected president of that party continuously at all election councils, until February 2014, when he resigned from the leading position and was elected honorary president. He began his professional political career in 1992, when he was elected a member of the IDS as a candidate in the House of Representatives of the SR Parliament. He was also elected to parliament in 1995 and 2000, but put his last term on hold as the IDS participates in the new SDP-led ruling coalition, and Jakovcic becomes the first European integration minister in Prime Minister Ivica Racan's government. After the IDS left the government in 2001, he resigned and ran for mayor of Istria. He won and won new county seats in 2005 and 2009, in the first direct elections. He was elected to the Istria County Assembly in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2013, 2017 and 2021.

He is one of the important promoters of wine culture in Istria and a renowned sommelier. Since 2009 he has been the president of the Croatian Golf Association (GU), elected in 2013, and in 2015-17. Croatian Golf Association (HGS), where he is today the honorary president.

In addition to Croatian, he actively speaks Italian, German, French and English in his speech and writing.