predecessor successor birth_place president image_size party profession birth_date order term_start spouse image article_title term_end name alma_mater
'' stefan sofiyanski '' -lrb- acting -rrb- simeon saxe-coburg gotha sofia , bulgaria petur stoyanov 200px union bulgaria of democratic forces , democrats for a strong economist 23 december 1949 47th prime minister of bulgaria 21 may 1997 elena kostova ivan kostov 2012 02.jpg ivan kostov
 24 july 2001 ivan yordanov kostov -lrb- Иван Йорданов Костов -rrb- university of national and world economy , sofia university
ivan kostov

ivan yordanov kostov -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- born 23 december 1949 in sofia -rrb- was the 47th prime minister of bulgaria in office from may 1997 to july 2001 and leader of the union of democratic forces -lrb- udf -rrb- between december 1994 and july 2001 .
ivan kostov graduated in economics from the karl marx higher institute of economics -lrb- today 's university of national and world economy -rrb- 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 -lrb- udf -rrb- .
his political career began as member of parliament in the 7th grand national assembly in 1990 -lrb- he was an mp from 1990 to 2013 -rrb- and he went on to become bulgaria 's finance minister in the two consecutive governments of dimitar popov -lrb- december 1990 -- october 1991 -rrb- and filip dimitrov -lrb- november 1991 -- december 1992 -rrb- .
