Ivan Kostov

Who is Ivan Kostov?

Ivan Yordanov Kostov was the 47th Prime Minister of Bulgaria in office from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces between December 1994 and July 2001.

Ivan Kostov graduated in Economics from the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics in Sofia in 1974, and later earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Modeling of Economic Processes from Sofia University. He then worked as an associate professor at Sofia Technical University and entered politics after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Bulgarian communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov. Kostov became an economic expert for the Union of Democratic Forces. His political career began as Member of Parliament in the 7th Grand National Assembly in 1990 and he went on to become Bulgaria's Finance Minister in the two consecutive governments of Dimitar Popov and Filip Dimitrov.