Mladen Ivanić
Mladen Ivanić is a Bosnian Serb politician who served as the 9th Serb Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 17 November 2014 until 20 November 2018. He is the founder, member and 1st president of the Party of Democratic Progress.
Ivanić also served as the 3rd Minister of Foreign Affairs from 13 January 2003 until 9 February 2007. He was the 7th Prime Minister of Republika Srpska as well.Biography
Born in Sanski Most, Ivanić has lived in Banja Luka since 1971, when he earned his university diploma in economics there. He then received a doctorate in Belgrade; the thesis was titled Contemporary Marxist political economy in the West. He undertook post-Doctoral studies at the University of Mannheim and the University of Glasgow. Upon completion of his studies, he worked as a journalist. From 1985 to 1988, he lectured in Political Economy at the Faculty of Economics in Banja Luka, and later also in Sarajevo and Glasgow. His political career began in 1988, when he became a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Yugoslav Socialist times.
From 2001-03, Ivanić was Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two entities. He also served as the sixth foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina since it became independent in 1992, succeeding Zlatko Lagumdžija on the post, and as such was a member of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In turn, he was succeeded on the post in 2007 by Sven Alkalaj.
He is a founding member of the center-right Bosnian Serb Party of Democratic Progress and was its President from 1999 to 2015. In October 2014, he was elected as the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, narrowly beating SNSD's candidate, the RS PM Željka Cvijanović. His victory marked the first time since the Dayton Agreement that the Serb member of the Presidency received the highest number of votes in the country, out of the three elected members. He was chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 17 November 2014 until 17 July 2015.
Ivanić is fluent in English.
On October 7, 2018, Ivanić lost his bid for re-election to the Bosnian Presidency to Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik.
