Dušan Sernec

Dušan Sernec (8 July 1882 – 15 February 1952) was a Slovene electrical engineer, academic, and politician. During the interwar period he served as a minister in the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and as Ban (governor) of the Drava Banovina, the administrative province that largely corresponded to modern-day Slovenia. During the Second World War he joined the Yugoslav resistance movement, and in 1945 he became one of the members of the Regency Council representing King Peter II of Yugoslavia in the provisional government that preceded the establishment of socialist Yugoslavia.

Early life and education Sernec was born in Maribor (then Marburg an der Drau), in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the twelfth child of the lawyer and politician Janko Sernec, a prominent figure in Slovene public life.

Academic career In 1923 Sernec joined the University of Ljubljana, where he became a lecturer at the Technical Faculty specializing in electrical installations and power engineering.

In 1930 Sernec was appointed Minister of Forests and Mines in the government of General Petar Živković. He briefly returned to the position of Minister of Construction in 1931 before withdrawing from active party politics after leaving the Slovene People's Party.

Selected works Sernec, Dušan; Smolej, Viktor (1944). Stari politiki in javni delavci o Osvobodilni fronti, o jugoslovanskem osvobodilnem gibanju in o Titu.