Irena Vodopivec Jean

Irena Vodopivec Jean is a Slovenian economist and central banker. She has assumed positions of increasing responsibility with the central bank of Slovenia, the Bank of Slovenia and the Slovenian Ministry of Finance.

Early life and education Jean received a master's degree in banking from the Faculty of Social Sciences in 2007 at the University of Ljubljana. Her thesis was titled, State Aid Control in Slovenia.

According to a published article by Jenko, Jean supervised a financial institution called Abanka from 2006 to 2009 "at a time when it granted – as it later turned out – several hundred million worth of bad loans, and the state had to support it with a substantial financial injection last year [in 2014]. She herself now rejects the accusations and responds that she 'carefully and responsibly supervised Abanka.'"

Early resignation In June 2022, Jean resigned from her position of vice governor for personal reasons, writing to the National Assembly that, "Life is unpredictable, and circumstances have arisen in my personal life that have led me to decide not to continue my intensive work at the Bank of Slovenia."

On 18 December 2024, Jean joined a meeting between the Delegation of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and the Slovenian Court of Audit. Jean was listed as an advisor to the President. The participants at the meeting discussed the financing of local governments and reviewed the recommendations proposed by the Congress in 2018 regarding local democracy in Slovenia.