Radovan Žerjav was born in Maribor on 2 December 1968. After completing a bilingual primary school in Lendava, he continued his education in the natural sciences, mathematics, at the secondary school in Murska Sobota; after completing his military service, he enrolled in the Technical Faculty of the University of Maribor in 1988 where he graduated in chemical engineering in 1993. While employed, he took up his studies in 1996 at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the University of Maribor. In 2003, he received his M.Sc. in chemical engineering after having successfully defended his MSc paper entitled “Analysis of Reaction and Separation Methods in the Bio-Diesel Production”.

Having finished his studies, he started to work for the oil company Nafta Lendava. His career with Nafta Lendava started with the position of a petroleum refining engineer (1993); three years later he was promoted to the head of department for technological and logistical production preparation (1996) and in November 1999 he became the head of development for the whole company. In February 2002, he took over as Technical Director of Nafta Petrochem, and as of January 2004 he simultaneously performed his duties as the Assistant Director of Nafta Lendava for technical sector. In March 2007, he was appointed Director of Nafta Biodizel, d.o.o., established with the purpose to set up the bio-diesel production within the group of Nafta Lendava, d.o.o. He performed both functions until 12 September 2007 when he was elected the Minister.

MSc Radovan Žerjav is the author and co-author of numerous technical articles published in domestic and foreign media.

He is fluent in German, English and also has a basic knowledge of Hungarian.