© Slovak Post, 2005 Ivan Gašparovič was born on 27 March 1941 in Poltár. From 1959 until 1964 he studied law at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University (“CU”) in Bratislava. Following graduation, from 1965 until 1966 he was an articled clerk at the District Public Prosecution Office in Martin, and from 1966 to 1968 he worked for the Public Prosecution Office, Bratislava. In 1968 he started work as a lecturer at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of CU Department of Law. He was elected a member of the Slovak National Council in 1992, subsequently becoming the Chairman, and later, until 1998, he was the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic (“NC SR”). In 2002, Doc. JUDr. Ivan Gašparovič again resumed the position of university professor at CU Faculty of Law. He wrote and participated in the writing of numerous university schoolbooks and textbooks, scientific research, and articles in the field of criminal law. In the direct presidential election that took place in April 2004, Mr. Gašparovič was elected President of the Slovak Republic. His term of office commenced after the presidential inauguration held on 15 June 2004. Within the first year of his tenure as the President of the SR, Ivan Gašparovič visited all the important European and world institutions. He met with the highest officials of the European Union and NATO in Brussels. In September 2004, he gave a speech at the 59th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. He thus became the first head of the country in the history of the Slovak Republic to make such an appearance. In February 2005, he hosted the heads of the United States of America and Russian Federation during the Bush-Putin Summit in Bratislava, which was without doubt the most outstanding international political event that has taken place in the Slovak Republic in recent years.