Željko Kerum
62nd Mayor of Split
Incumbent
Assumed office  June 1, 2009
Preceded by	Ivan Kuret
Born	25 September 1960 (1960-09-25) (age 49) Ogorje, SR Croatia
Died	Zagreb
Political party	Croatian Civil Party (Hrvatska građanska stranka (independent)
Alma mater	None
Occupation	Politician, entrepreneur
Profession	None

Željko Kerum (born September 25, 1960 in Ogorje) is a Croatian entrepreneur and politician.^[1] He ran for mayor of Split, Croatia in May 2009 and won 58.4% of the vote. He is also the owner of the Croatian supermarket chain Kerum.

Kerum graduated from the Technical High School in Split, Croatia in 1978. In 1981 he got his first job in the Split construction company Melioracija spending a year in Iraq working on military bases. He founded the company Kerum in 1989, opening his first convenience store in 1990. Six years later he opened his first supermarket in the Lora neighborhood of Split. In 2003 he bought the Diokom industrial facilities (ex-Jugoplastika) and in 2007 he opened the Joker Shopping Mall, the largest in Dalmatia.^[2]

In the first round of the 2009 elections for mayor of Split, Kerum (independent) won 40.21% of the popular vote, while his closest rival Ranko Ostojić (SDP) won 34.72%.^[3] On May 31, he won 58.42% of the vote, making him the incumbent mayor of Split.^[4]

In September 2009 there was a scandal in Croatia surrounding Kerum, because of his controversial quotes on the TV show Nedjeljom u 2 on national television channel HRT, where he said that "Serbs and Montenegrins are no good nor can't do anything good." This was followed by words that are referred as hate speech by many politicians around Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. He said he would never let a Serb marry his daughter, into his family. He also said that 70% of the journalists in Croatia were in fact Yugoslavs, without a home (country), thus bringing so much misinformation, he had concluded this on the basis of surnames.

[edit] References

Political offices
Preceded by Ivan Kuret	Mayor of Split 2009–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Persondata
NAME	Kerum, Željko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kerum, Zeljko
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Croatian businessman and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	25 September 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ogorje, Croatia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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