Born on March 27th, 1941 in Poltár. He is married and has two adult children. In 1959 – 1964 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava, and in 1968 was conferred a scientific degree of Candidate of Sciences and habilitated as a docent at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University. In 1964 he started to work at the District Prosecutor’s Office in Martin and later at the Municipal Prosecutor’s Office in Bratislava. Furthermore, in 1966 – 1989 he was also the Vice-chairman of the International Committee of the Czechoslovak Ice Hockey Federation. Since 1968 he had been lecturing at the Department of Criminal Law, Criminalistics and Criminal Science at the Faculty of Law, CU. In 1989 he became a co-chairman of the Independent Slovak Lawyers’ Forum and in 1990 the Vice-Chancellor of Comenius University. In 1990 – 1992 he served as Attorney General of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic in Prague. In 1992 he worked as a teacher at the Faculty of Law, CU and as a member of its Scientific Council. In the same year he was elected the Vice-Chairman of the Slovak National Council (since October 1st 1992 called the National Council of the Slovak Republic), and participated in the creation of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. In 1994 – 1998 he held the office of the Chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic and was entrusted with execution of powers of the President of the Slovak Republic from March to October 1998. In the same year he was a Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Member of the Committee for Constitutional Law, Credentials and Immunity of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Member of the parliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. From July to October 2002 he was an independent Member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. In 2002 he founded the political party Movement for Democracy (HZD), becoming its leader. In the same year he returned to the Faculty of Law, CU as a teacher. In 2004 he ran for the presidency of the Slovak Republic, and won in the second round of the direct election on April 17th, 2004. He was officially inaugurated as the President of the Slovak Republic on June 15th, 2004. During his presidency he was awarded an honorary doctorate by several prominent foreign universities, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts awarded the President of the SR with the position of Vice-Chancellor of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA). He is a holder of the highest foreign state as well as the highest national awards. His merits in the formation of the Slovak Republic were appreciated by the Order of Andrej Hlinka, First Class, and according to Law on State Awards, by the Order of Ľudovít Štúr, First Class, Milan Rastislav Štefánik Cross, First Class, and Pribina Cross, First Class. Ivan Gašparovič has been the President of the SR since June 15th, 2004. He defended his repeated candidature for the position of the President in the presidential election on April 4th,2009. He was inaugurated into the second electoral term on June 15th, 2009.