Anka Mrak-Taritaš

Anka Mrak-Taritaš was born on November 24, 1959 in Bjelovar, where she finished elementary and high school. She graduated architecture in 1983 from the Zagreb Faculty of Architecture. In year 2002, she took courses in building permits and legislative frameworks in Finland and Germany. In 2006, she passed the training course for teachers on Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment. In 2008, Mrak Taritaš gained her doctorate with thesis: "Analysis of the quantification of indicators of planning tourist zones within the protected coastal zone".[1]

After graduation, Mrak-Taritaš worked for a year on the creating of major projects of the Zagreb University Hospital and the ACI marina on the Adriatic. From 15 August 1984 until 15 December 1992, she worked as intern at the Committee for Planning and Building of the Trnje district on various jobs in the field of spatial planning and construction, including issuing conditions for spatial planning, building permits and use permits, as well as technical inspection. On 16 December 1992, she became Head of the Department for Coordination of National, Regional and Local Planning in the Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Spatial Planning and Construction. She was also consultant for the spatial planning. From 12 July 2005 until 13 October 2005, Mrak Taritaš served as head of the Institute for Development Planning and Environmental Protection of Zagreb. On 13 October 2005, Mrak-Taritaš become Head of Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Construction and Spatial Planning. She also participated in the work of committees for the evaluation of studies of environmental impact as Deputy President of the Commission, and working group for preparation of negotiations on amendments to bilateral international treaties that Croatia concluded with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. After Kukuriku coalition won the 2011 parliamentary elections, Mrak-Taritaš was appointed Deputy Minister of Construction and Spatial Planning with minister being Ivan Vrdoljak. After Radimir Čačić, Minister of Economy, resigned and Vrdoljak took his place, Mrak-Taritaš was appointed minister.[2][3] Her biggest success as minister was the enactment of the Law on the Legalization of Illegally Constructed Buildings which helped in legalizing 100.000 buildings which were constructed without any building permit or out of gabarites of issued building permit.

Mrak-Taritaš was a member of the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats from 2012 until June 2017 when she and three other HNS's MPs left he party when it entered coalition agreement with conservative Croatian Democratic Union party. On 2015 parliamentary elections, she received 8,047 preferential votes and has thus become member of the Croatian Parliament.[4] She was re-elected to the Parliament in 2016 parliamentary elections. Mrak-Taritaš was HNS's and SDP's candidate for Mayor of Zagreb in 2017 local elections and had eventually finished second.[5]

She is married and has two sons.[6] Religiously, she is a nonpracticing Catholic.[7]