Juris Pūce

Juris Pūce
Chairman of the political party Latvian Development
Incumbent
Assumed office 2014
Personal details
Born	(1980-01-22) January 22, 1980 Riga, Latvia
Political party	For Latvia's Development
Alma mater	University of Latvia

Juris Pūce (born 22 January 1980, in Riga) is a Latvian economist, lawyer, and politician. He is the chairman of the liberal party Latvian Development and the fraction leader of Latvian Development group in the Riga City Council. He is also a board member at the Foundation of University of Latvia, he gives lectures in Strategic Management at the University of Latvia, and he is the presenter of the monthly radio show “Pūce skaita līdzi” (Pūce is counting along) on Radio SWH. Juris Pūce is a former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economics (2010-2013), Member of the Board of Council at Latvian Mobile Telephone (2009-2012), Member of the Board at Riga Graduate School of Law (2006-2010).

Education

Juris Pūce has graduated from Riga State German Grammar School. He has obtained Master's degree with excellence in Management Sciences at University of Latvia (2003-2005), as well as Master's degree in Law at University of Latvia (2002-2003). He has also received a professional lawyer qualification (2002).

Work at the University of Latvia

During his studies, Juris has actively participated in the self-government of the university – he was a board member at the students council at the University of Latvia from 1999 to 2003. From 2000 to 2003, he was the senator of the University of Latvia, has authored a guide on Senator’s Minimum. From 2003 to 2010, he was leading the Strategy department, since 2007 has been giving courses in Strategic Management. Since 2006, he has been actively working as a board member in the Foundation of the University of Latvia.

Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economics

On 8 January 2010, Juris Pūce became the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economics. At that time the duties of the Minister for Economics were performed by Artis Kampars (Unity). Shortly after the Zolitūde tragedy on 21 November 2013, Juris Pūce resigned from the position of the Secretary of State, due to the fact that the foundation led by his wife had received donations from the respective construction company Re & Re. Juris Pūce has turned to Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau himself with a request to evaluate if because of the aforementioned facts he has broken the law. He has received an official evaluation stating that there was no violation of law.

Political party Latvian Development

In 2014, Juris Pūce was running in the European Parliament election and the national parliament election from the political party Latvian Development. The party did not pass the 5% threshold in either of those elections, therefore he was not elected. On 29 November 2014, Juris Pūce was elected as chairman of the party at the party congress.

During his mandate as the chairman of the party, he has started two citizen initiatives on the platform manabalss.lv. On 23 March 2015, the process of collecting signatures for the Cohabitation Law Initiative was started; and on 17 September 2015, for the initiative “Give me back my kindergarten”.

In 2017, Juris Pūce ran in the Riga City Council elections from a joint list of political parties Latvian Development and Latvian Association of Regions. He got elected and on 22 June became a deputy at Riga City Council and leader of the party’s Latvian Development fraction at the Riga City Council.

TV and radio

Juris Pūce is the economics expert on Radio SWH and since 25 February 25 2015, he presents a monthly radio show “Pūce skaita līdzi” (Pūce is counting along).

Since 1 April 2015, he is a TV presenter at Riga TV24 and presents the TV show “Vai nauda aug kokos” (Does money grow on trees) where he talks about economic and financial news.

External links

• Juris Pūce on Twitter