Michal Truban
Member of the Slovak National Council
Assumed office
25 October 2023
Vice chairman of Progressive Slovakia
Assumed office
6 June 2020
Chairman of Progressive Slovakia
In office
8 May 2019 – 1 March 2020
Preceded byIvan Štefunko
Succeeded byIrena Bihariová
Personal details
Born (1983-10-22) 22 October 1983
Kysucký Lieskovec, Czechoslovakia
Political partyProgressive Slovakia
Spouse
Dominika Fričová
​
​
(m. 2015; div. 2018)​
Domestic partnerAdela Zábražná (2019-)
Children2
Websitehttps://www.truban.sk/

Michal Truban (born 22 October 1983) is a Slovak businessman and politician who has served as a Member of the National Council since 2023. He has been a vice-president of Progressive Slovakia since 6 June 2020.[1]

Business career

Michal Truban founded Websupport, a web hosting company, as a high school student for his mother's business. The company became the eighth fastest-growing IT company in Central and Eastern Europe.[2] In 2015, he was declared the IT personality of the year by the members of professional associations in the field of IT and telecommunications.[3] However, a few months later, Truban announced his resignation as CEO and was replaced by Ján Cifra, but remained co-owner.[4]

In 2016, Truban published his first book titled Support: Ako vybudovať úspešný biznis, aj keď robíte jednu chybu za druhou (lit. 'Support: How to build a successful business, even if you make one mistake after another').[5] The book contains the story of Websupport, as well as instructions and a discussion forum for entrepreneurs. According to Truban, over 6,000 copies of the book were sold in three months.[6]

In February 2019, Truban announced that he would sell his half stake in Websupport, citing plans to focus on politics. Minority shares in the company were also sold by co-owners Pavel Stano and Ivan Štefunko, with whom Truban co-founded Progressive Slovakia.[7]

Michal Truban spoke publicly against corruption especially in the IT sector. In 2015, he reported to the police persons who offered pre-won tenders to the Websupport company. Additionally, he was among those who strongly spoke out against TechMatch, a government-sponsored IT startup conference, which faced allegations of wasteful spending.[8]

Political career

Progressive Slovakia

Truban joined Progressive Slovakia in 2016 while also becoming a member of the board together with Zora Jaurová, Ivan Štefunko, and Martin Dubéci.[9]

On 27 November 2017, the association was transformed into a liberal centrist political movement and registered under the Act on Political Parties.[10] One year later, a survey of electoral preferences by the Focus agency measured him at 5.3%, which would exceed the quorum for entry into the National Council of the Slovakia for the first time.[11]

In April 2019, after Ivan Štefunko announced that he would no longer be in the office, Truban was the only candidate who applied for the post.[12] On 8 May 2019, the latter was elected as new chairman of the movement.[13]

Based on a coalition agreement between Progressive Slovakia and Democrats from July 2019, Truban was leader of the joint candidate during the 2020 parliamentary elections where he received 75,962 votes.[14][15]

Truban received the highest number of preferential votes of all candidates on the list. However,the coalition fell short of passing the representation threshold narrowly, missing just 926 votes. On 1 March 2020, he resigned from the position of chairman after the election failure. Truban competed for the position of chairman on a party congress in June, but was defeated by Irena Bihariová.[16]

Radical digitization

Truban promotes radical digitization, hoping that Slovakia will become the first country whose citizens do not have to fill out forms at the office.[17] He also visited Estonia during the campaign, which is a world leader digitization.[18]

Personal life

Between 2015 and 2019, Truban was married to medical research Dominika Fričová, with whom he temporarily lived in Jacksonville, Florida, where she worked on Parkinson's disease research.[19] Afterwards, Truban has since been in a relationship with the entrepreneur Adela Zábražná.[20] The couple has two children, Marieta and Milo, born in 2020[21] and 2022[22] respectively.

Truban stated that he does not follow any religion.[23]

Controversy

Truban was accused of promoting drug use based on a recorded speech, which contained a mention about editing the "blackhole" website to include more white.[24] He later clarified his remarks were indeed about web page design and did not allude to cocaine. Truban also apologised for the part of his speech that disparaged manual laborers from his native region of Kysuce.[25]

References

  1. ↑ Krempaský, Ján (8 June 2020). "Zažila chudobu aj predsudky. Kto je Irena Bihariová?". SME.
  2. ↑ "Technology Fast 50: Viac slovenských zástupcov v rebríčku rýchlorastúcich firiem" [Slovak companies again improved their position]. Deloitte Slovakia (in Slovak). 25 October 2013. Archived from the original on 8 March 2017.
  3. ↑ Kosno, Lukáš (2 October 2015). "Slovensko spoznalo najlepších v IT sektore. Osobnosťou roka šéf Websupportu". Živé by Ringier (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 20 September 2020.
  4. ↑ "WebSupport má nového CEO!". startitup.sk (in Slovak). 8 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Truban, Michal (2016). Support: ako vybudovať úspešný biznis, aj keď robíte jednu chybu za druhou (in Slovak) (1st ed.). Bratislava: Premedia. p. 238. ISBN 978-80-8159-429-8.
  6. ↑ "Ako vytvoriť bestseller (nie len knižný)". Michal Truban Official Website (in Slovak).
  7. ↑ Raábová, Martina (11 February 2019). "Truban predal WebSupport, chce sa venovať politike". SME (in Slovak).
  8. ↑ Kern, Miro (1 June 2015). "Michal Truban brojí proti korupcii: IT zákazky štátu sú predražené aj niekoľkonásobne". Denník N (in Slovak).
  9. ↑ Mikušovič, Dušan (22 September 2016). "K Štefunkovmu združeniu sa pridali IT podnikateľ Truban a právnik Pala". Denník N (in Slovak).
  10. ↑ "Register of Political Parties and Political Movements". ives.minv.sk.
  11. ↑ Kern, Miro (16 November 2018). "Focus: Progresívne Slovensko aj Spolu majú päť percent, SNS po kauze rigorózka stráca". Denník N (in Slovak).
  12. ↑ Praus, Lucia (2 April 2019). "Štefunko už nebude kandidovať na post lídra Progresívneho Slovensko". SME (in Slovak).
  13. ↑ Praus, Lucia (8 May 2019). "Lúčenie Čaputovej aj Štefunka. Progresívne Slovensko na snem iných politikov nepozývalo". SME (in Slovak).
  14. ↑ Kern, Miro (12 July 2019). "Kandidátku PS/Spolu povedie Truban a má byť aj spoločným kandidátom na premiéra". Denník N (in Slovak).
  15. ↑ "Kandidátku PS/Spolu povedie Truban a má byť aj spoločným kandidátom na premiéra". volbysr.sk (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 24 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "Novou predsedníčkou Progresívneho Slovenska sa stala Bihariová". Pravda (in Slovak). 6 June 2020.
  17. ↑ "Radikálna digitalizácia štátu by podľa progresívcov ušetrila peniaze". teraz.sk (in Slovak). 9 October 2018.
  18. ↑ "Problémom digitalizácie Slovenska je politické vedenie". SME (in Slovak). 25 October 2018.
  19. ↑ "Michal Truban: Sabbatical v Amerike beriem aktívne". Trend Slovakia (in Slovak). 13 May 2017.
  20. ↑ "Líder Progresívcov Michal Truban ukázal svoju novú partnerku. Zbalil mladú riaditeľku!". Plus jeden deň (in Slovak). 4 May 2019.
  21. ↑ Mikulcová, Monika (1 April 2020). "Truban je hrdým otcom! Takéto krásne meno vybral s priateľkou pre svoju prvú dcéru!". Plus jeden deň (in Slovak). Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  22. ↑ "Truban prežíva najšťastnejšie chvíle života: Narodil sa mu SYN, prvé FOTO a slová hrdého otca!". Plus jeden deň (in Slovak). 19 June 2022.
  23. ↑ Magušin, Michal (13 April 2019). "Najviac si cením slobodu". Týždeň (in Slovak).
  24. ↑ "Truban vysvetľuje "5 gramov bieleho"". Pravda (in Slovak). 10 August 2019.
  25. ↑ Hlucháňová, Mária (9 August 2019). "Truban: Nikdy som drogy nepredával, robotníkom z Kysúc sa ospravedlňujem". Pravda (in Slovak).
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