Zlatko Čuš was born in Ptuj on 5th August 1960. After a successful period of study at the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Maribor, from which he graduated in 1984 as a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering.

In 1984, he started work with Talum. In 1994, he achieved his master's degree at Maribor Faculty of Electrical Engineering with the thesis Synthesis of the Complex Function of Aluminium Electrolytic Cells. In 1998, he obtained his doctor's degree at the same faculty with the thesis Functional Stability of Electrolytic Cells Used to Obtain Aluminium by the Use of Different Cathode Materials.

He has worked in various fields of aluminium production. At the beginning, he was involved in the optimisation process of the potline as a development engineer. After two years of leading the development of potlines, he became the leading engineer in the transfer of technology from the French Pechiney company to Talum for which he spent five months qualifying in France in 1987.

Since the operation start of Potline C in 1988, he acted as the leading engineer responsible for the optimisation of the potlines' operation. In 1993, he was appointed Head of the Potline Work Unit. Within this period, he was, among other things, responsible for the construction of the second phase of Potline C. He has published over 30 expert and scientific articles.

He is an active member of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society - TMS within the worldwide association for the production of light metals and the European Aluminium Technology Platform - EATP.