Mihelič, who is taking over for five years, has led SPIRIT since 5 January 2015 as acting director, when he succeeded Tomaž Klemenc, whose term expired.

Since then the agency has been revamped; its tourism arm transformed into the Slovenian Tourist Board (STO) on 1 August 2015.

SPIRIT was established in 2012 with the merger of the Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (JAPTI), the STO and the Technology Agency (TIA).