Ivan Gašparovič, doc. JUDr., CSc. – President of the Slovak Republic, was born on March 27, 1941 in Poltár. He is married with two adult children. He studied at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava (1959 – 1964). In 1964 he started work for the District Prosecutor´s Office in Martin and then he joined the Local Prosecutor´s Office in Bratislava. In 1968 he was granted the academic degree of Candidate of Sciences (equivalent of PhD since 1998) and habilitated to be a Docent at the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University where he lectured at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology. Moreover, in 1966 – 1989 he was also active as the Vice-Chairman of the International Commission of the Czechoslovak Ice Hockey Federation. In 1989 he became the Co-Chairman of the Forum of Independent Slovak Lawyers and in 1990 he became the Vice-Chancellor of the Comenius University. In the period of 1990 – 1992 he was active as the Attorney General of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic in Prague. In 1992 he taught at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University and he was the member of the University Academic Council. In the same year he was elected to the Chairman of the Slovak National Council and he participated in the development of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. In 1994 – 1998 he was the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and in March to October 1998 he was delegated to act as the President of the Slovak Republic. In the same year he was the member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, member of the constitutional law committee, and mandate and immunity committee of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, member of the Parliamentary Delegation in the Interparliamentary Union. From July to October 2002 he was an independent member of the NC of SR. In 2002 he founded the political party Movement for Democracy and he became its Chairman. In the same year he returned to the Comenius University. As an independent candidate he won in the second round of the direct presidential elections on April 17, 2004. He has been the President of Slovakia since June 15, 2004. He sustained his position also in the elections of April 4, 2009 and on June 15, 2009 he was inaugurated for the second term of the President of the Slovak Republic.  During his Presidential term he was awarded the honorary Doctorate by various foreign as well as national universities and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and he was awarded the position of a protector. At the same time he is the holder of several foreign state awards as well as national awards.