Ivan Žagar was born on 12 January 1962 in Maribor. He attended Primary School in Spodnja Polskava; he was a Secondary School student at the Technical, Electro, Mechanical and Textile School in Maribor.

In 1981 he enrolled at the Technical Faculty of the University of Maribor. He graduated in 1986 and in the same year he got employed at the above-mentioned Faculty as an early stage researcher.

In 1988 he became an assistant and already the next year he successfully received his Master’s degree. In 1990 he received a national recognition to early stage researchers for his successful research work. He obtained his PhD in 1992 and in the following year he was assigned to the Assistant Professor post at the Technical Faculty of the University of Maribor covering the subject Processing Technique, Devices in Processing Industry.

He additionally improved his skills at the Paul Scherer Institute in Switzerland and Wessex Institute of Technology in the United Kingdom. His personal bibliography contains more than 100 scientific works. As an expert in the field of technical sciences he wrote numerous scientific articles and published them in domestic and foreign magazines. He gathered his scientific-research work in many papers and presented them at more than 20 national and international scientific events and while lecturing at the faculty he was a mentor or co-mentor to 13 graduate and post-graduate students.

In 1994, he was elected mayor in the municipality of Slovenska Bistrica and performed this function until 2004. Since 2003 he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Slovenian People's Party and has been very active.
Dr Ivan Žagar is very active in professional and political life. He is a member of many international and Slovene associations. He cooperated with GAMM – Gesselsemaft fur angewandte mathematik und mechanik, the Slovene Society of Mechanics, the Slovene Association SLOSIM. He was a member of the management board of the Small Projects Fund under the Phare Cross Border Cooperation Programme, a member of a Project Council of the Phare Programme »Regional development activities«, a member of a steering committee of the Fund for the Development and Training of Human Resources and he also chaired a Project Council for Waste Management. When Slovenia became an EU Member State he acted as an alternate member in the Committee of the Regions.

Dr Ivan Žagar took oath as minister without portfolio responsible for local government and regional policy in the national assembly on 16 December 2004.

He speaks English and Croatian.