Ivo Sanader - Early Life

Early Life

Ivo Sanader was born in Split, into a religious, poor working family with four siblings. Since his family was financially unable to educate all five children, his mother asked the rector of the Archbishopric Classical Gymnasium to accept Ivo as their student. After completing high school, Sanader moved to Rome to study philosophy, but did not like studying there. Following his return from Rome he met his future spouse, Mirjana Šarić, whom he married in 1978.

After their wedding, Ivo and Mirjana and Ivo's younger brother Miro left Split for Innsbruck, Austria. His wife studied archaeology, while Ivo studied comparative literature and Romance languages at the University of Innsbruck. During that time, Sanader also reported for the Zagreb sport newspaper Sportske novosti.

In 1982, Sanader received his Ph.D. degree, and returned to Croatia (then Yugoslavia) with his wife. He found a job in the marketing department of Dalmacijaturist (Dalmatia Tourist), for a brief period, followed by a lengthy period at the publishing house Logos from 1983, initially as a program editor. In 1988 he became a chief editor, at one time working on the magazine Mogućnosti (Possibilities). His career at the publishing house was later terminated. At that time, his wife also received a notice of termination from her workplace.

Sanader decided to return to Austria with his family, where he co-founded two businesses, one in 1989 which was liquidated by a court in 1992, while the other existed between 1986 and 2001. Sanader obtained a B.A. in Romance languages and comparative literature from Innsbruck University in Austria.

Apart from his native Croatian, he is fluent in English, German, French, and Italian.