Roman Kirn was born in Trbovlje, Slovenia, on February 23, 1952. He has a BA in International Relations from the University of Ljubljana and speaks English, French, Czech, and Serbian-Croatian. Kirn started out at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia in 1977, when Slovenia was still a part of Yugoslavia. He later returned to Slovenia in 1987 and worked at the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, where he was in charge of regional cooperation. In 1991 Slovenia gained its independence, and Kirn was appointed as one of the directors in the Multilateral Relations Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1992-1996 he served at the Minister Counselor at the Embassy of Slovenia in Prague, Czech Republic.