XIII ANNUAL ASSEMBLY: THE PATH TO SUCCESSFUL REFORMS

As a member of NALED’s first Managing Board and a current member of Advisory Board, he has provided continuous support to our organization’s development and strength, through 15 years of Smart kolektiv’s membership in NALED. He heads the organization recognized as a leader in the field of socially responsible work, sustainable economy and social entrepreneurship. Cooperation between NALED and Smart kolektiv has led to development of the first corporate social responsibility standard and a Draft Law on social entrepreneurship. During the COVID-19 pandemic we launched a joint initiative for abolishing VAT for food donations and improving the conditions for donations in general. He easily builds partnership with NALED members from all sectors, thanks to his outstanding leadership, mentorship and social marketing skills. Widely recognizable and favourite among colleagues as he approaches all tasks and challenges with enthusiasm and motivating humour. With movie star charm and a talent for public appearance, he traditionally holds the role of the host of NALED’s September Gathering.

Stanka Pejanović is a Board member in Gorenje Group system, the largest Slovenian and eighth largest home appliances manufacturer in Europe. A longtime director of the Mercator-S group, she held two mandates in the Mercator Group administration, responsible for Mercator’s business in markets of South East Europe. During her term at Mercator in Serbia, she increased sales spaces seven fold and raised market shares from less than 1% to nearly 9%. Very experienced in the fields of corporate management, acquisitions and mergers, business restructuring, strategy and brand value evaluations, category & supply management, pricing and sales strategies, as well as marketing and loyalty strategies. She is the Vice President of NALED Managing Board, being engaged in the MB since 2015, and the President of Serbian Association of Managers SAM. She finished both her BA and MA in Economics at the Economics Faculty of the University of Novi Sad, and is currently pursuing her doctorate at her alma mater. She speaks Serbian, English, Slovenian and Russian. Mother of two children.

Kyle Scott, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, presented his credentials as Ambassador to Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on February 5, 2016. Mr. Scott has extensive knowledge and background in European issues, built up through numerous assignments in Europe and various international organizations. Previously, he served as a State Department Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, D.C. (2014-2016), Consul General at the U.S. Consulate General Milan, Italy (2011-2014), and as Director of the Office of Russian Affairs in Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (2009-2011). He also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the OSCE (2005-2009), Political Minister Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union, Brussels, Belgium (2003-2005), as Political Counselor at U.S. Embassy Budapest, Hungary (1999-2003), and as Political Officer at U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia (1996-1998). Prior to that, Mr. Scott was a National Security Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, California (1994-1995). He also served as Political Officer at U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv, Israel (1991-1994), Economic Officer at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland (1987-1990), and Political and Economic Officer at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York (1984-1987). Other assignments since joining the Foreign Service in 1980, included serving as an International Economist in the Bureau of International Organizations, and as a Consular Officer in Zagreb, Croatia. He earned a B.A. from Arizona State University in 1979. His foreign languages include Serbian, Croatian, Russian, Italian, Hungarian, Hebrew, German and French.  

He was born on 14 December  1975 in Belgrade, where he finished elementary school. He started his secondary education in Australia and completed it at the XII Grammar School in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade, at the Department of International Relations, where he held the position of a student dean from 1996 to 1999. He was an MP in the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro in several terms, the president of the SPS-JS Parliamentary Group and a long-time member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Committee on Administrative, Budget and Mandate Immunity Issues and the Committee on European Integration. He was also a member of the permanent delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he was a member of the Political Committee and a member of the Human Rights Committee. In the Government of Serbia, in 2013, he held the post of Minister without a portfolio in charge of European integration, in the period when the negotiating framework was adopted and when negotiations between the Republic of Serbia and the European Union were officially opened. He was elected Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government on 29 June 2017.  

Arne Sanes Bjernstad je završio Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Oslu a zatim i Školu za javnu administraciju (ENA) u Francuskoj. Karijeru započinje 1990. godine. u Ministarstvu spoljnih poslova Norveške kao referent za pravne poslove u Odeljenju za dostave. Nakon toga je u Ankari, Rabatu i Parizu radio kao koordinator za saradnju norveške spoljne politike, kao i pravnih/unutrašnjih poslova sa Evropskom unijom. Od februara 2003. do septembra 2006. bio je viši savetnik u Kancelariji premijera Norveške. Od 2006. do 2008. godine je bio savetnik za ekonomske i evropske poslove u Norveškoj ambasadi u Londonu, da bi od 2008. do 2011. godine bio zamenik šefa misije u Londonu. Pre dolaska u Beograd radio je kao generalni inspektor i šef Jedinice za spoljnu službu kontrole u Oslu. U Beogradu je od 1. septembra 2015. na funkciji ambasadora Norveške u Srbiji, Makedoniji i Crnoj Gori. Počasni građanin Beograda postao je 2016. godine.

Dragan Penezić holds a PhD on the topic "The modern concept of business through the development of Public and Private Partnership (Comparative study of PPP models in Europe - Solution for Serbia)" in 2010, and graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade in 1999. He joined British American Tobacco in 2016, where he started as a Government Affairs Manager and currently holds position of the Head of Legal and External Affairs for Serbia and Montenegro. Prior to his career in BAT, he held the position of the Secretary General of the Commission for the Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia, where he spent seven years and has been a member of the Negotiating Group for Chapter VIII (Competition and State Aid) in the process of Serbia's accession to the European Union. Dragan has extensive experience in public administration, first as Assistant Minister in the sector for concessions and public - private partnerships in the Ministry of International Economic Relations, and then in the Ministry of Trade and Services as Assistant Minister in the sector for trade, prices and consumer protection. He is a President of the NALED Assembly since 2017 and President of  FIC’s Anti-Illicit Committee from 2018.

Laura Pavlovic is the Director of the Office of Democratic and Economic Growth in USAID/Serbia, where she manages the design and implementation of USAID’s democratic governance and economic growth programs.  Prior to her arrival in Serbia in July 2015, Ms. Pavlovic served in Washington, DC, where she led USAID efforts to integrate democracy, human rights and governance principles and practices across USAID’s development portfolio.  She has also served in USAID’s missions in Ukraine and East Africa.  Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Pavlovic worked as a program advisor for the Kenya Human Rights Commission, where she focused on housing rights and participatory budgeting processes, and as a corporate attorney in New York and Washington, where she also worked extensively on human rights and political asylum issues.  She has a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pennsylvania.  Laura served as Editor in Chief of the Harvard Human Rights Journal, and has published on development and transitional justice challenges in the Balkans.  She was also part of the Policy Task Team that developed USAID’s 2013 Strategy on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance. She speaks Serbian, Russian and French.

Sung-gi Lee has started his engagement in KOTRA Belgrade in Serbia, the commercial office of Embassy of the Republic of Korea, in the summer of 2017, following 10-year experience with the Korean agency helping businesses in developing new international partnerships, introducing Serbia for Korean investors and accessing foreign markets. He started his career the business sector in 2002, as Business and Process Innovation Principle Consultant in LG CNS, spending six years with the company. He joined KOTRA in 2008, first engaging as Principle Consultant of Overseas Market, working with Korean businesses wishing to expand their work abroad. In 2011 he went to USA, serving as Deputy Director of Marketing in the KOTRA New York Branch Office, where he spent four years, once again returning to his home country in 2015, acting as Director of Management Assessment. He earned the Bachelor, Master and PhD degree from the Hanyang University, Korea, specializing in Industrial Engineering, with PhD thesis on Numeric and Non-numeric data Clustering using Multi-dimensional Scaling.

Sem Fabrizi has been Ambassador of the European Union to Serbia since July 2017. From September 2013 to June 2017 he was Ambassador of the EU to Australia. An Italian career diplomat, he has served as an advisor on international relations to the President of the European Council in Brussels and to the Prime Minister of Italy in Rome. His earlier postings included Geneva, at the Italian Permanent Mission to the WTO and UN, and the Italian Embassy in Beijing. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome he has held positions in the EU Department and the Secretary General’s Office. He holds degrees in International Law and International Economy from “La Sapienza” University in Rome, and he has served as a lieutenant in the Italian Army. Sem has been awarded the honour of Cavaliere Ufficiale dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana. 

Stephen Ndegwa is the World Bank Country Manager for Serbia. Prior to this position, he was the Operations Manager responsible for the World Bank program in Afghanistan. Between 2011 and 2014, he was Adviser with Operations Policy and Country Services based at the World Bank's Center on Conflict, Security and Development and he was a member of the core team writing the 2011 World Development Report on conflict, security and development. He joined the World Bank in 2002 as Young Professional and has since worked on governance, political economy, and public sector capacity building across several regions. He has served as a Lead Specialist in the Governance Global Practice and has worked on programs in the Africa, Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific regions. Prior to joining the World Bank, he was Associate Professor of Government at The College of William and Mary (Virginia, USA, 1994-2002). In 2010, he was a Rice Family Faculty Fellow at Yale University and a non-resident Visiting Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (Spring 2011). He is the author or editor of several books and his research articles have appeared in leading journals including award-winning work in the American Political Science Review. He holds a PhD in political science and public policy from Indiana University (USA, 1993).

She was born on 5 May 1970 in Tuzla. After graduating from the First Economics School in Belgrade, as a student of the generation, she enrolled at the Faculty of Economics, where she graduated in 1993 and received her doctorate in 2001 in the field of energy and economics. She became Assistant Professor at the University of John Nesbitt in 2008, Associate Professor and Vice-Rector for Science in 2011, and was elected as a full-time professor in 2016. She is the author and co-author of four books in the field of energy and sustainable development. She has published more than two hundred papers on the problems and possibilities of the development of the Serbian energy sector. She worked in the First Economics School, EPS-Elektroistok, at Nikola Tesla Airport and the University of John Nesbitt, where she is still employed. From 2004 to 2006, she was the Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia for Energy. She was the Energy Adviser to Republika Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik from 2010 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014, she was the Governor of Serbia at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She was elected Minister of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection in 2012, and since 2014 she is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure. The portfolio of the ministry, headed by her, has the infrastructure projects in the value of approximately €16 billion. During the same term, she was appointed the President of the Coordination Body of the Government of the RS for Gender Equality, as well as the responsible person on behalf of the Government for the issue of Roma inclusion. She chairs the Joint Government Group of the RS with the task of defining specific measures for improving the position of the Republic of Serbia on the World Bank Doing Business list and the Council of Foreign Investors. She is the President of the Coordination Body for supporting the monitoring of project implementation, investing in the reconstruction and/or construction of clinical health centres. Since 2018, she is a member of the Advisory Board of the World Bank for Gender Equality and Development, the body responsible for reviewing the progress achieved in gender equality at the global level and recommending activities to empower women and reduce the gap between women and men. Since the establishment of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure in 2014, which she still manages, more than 200 km of new highways have been built, more than 200 km of railroads have been reconstructed, public enterprise reforms have been started and a major step forward has been made in harmonization of domestic legislation in the field of traffic and construction with the rules applicable in the European Union. A special achievement is the implementation of comprehensive reforms in the field of construction, which resulted in Serbia's progress from 186th to the 10th place in the world for issuing of building permits on the Doing business list of the World Bank and improvement of the overall rating of the country on the list from 91th to 43rd place in three years. In her twenty-five-year professional career, she received more than 200 acknowledgments, charters and recognition, among which the "Reformer of the Year" in the selection of the NALED is one of the most significant ones. She received this award for the first time in 2014 for comprehensive building licensing reforms, and the second award, "Reformer of 2016", was awarded to her for decade of reforms in this area. She is a member of the Council of the University of Belgrade and the Management Board of the Development Fund. She is the founder of NGO Women's Government, a member of the European Movement in Serbia and the East West Bridge organization. She is the initiator of the initiative "Let Us Employ Thousands of Women in the Rural Areas", which is implemented by the Coordinating Body for Gender Equality in cooperation with Ethno-Network and NALED.

Violeta started building expertise in local economic and rural development and standardization, upon graduation in 1998, as an expert and team leader in USAID programs in Serbia and the region, through the design and implementation of complex development projects worth over 10 million dollars. As the first employee of NALED, and its Executive Director since July 2007, she was instrumental in growing an independent membership organization, which later grew into the largest public-private association focusing on building a favorable business environment in Serbia. She is a graduate philologist and gained further education in the field of economics and project management in specialized training and study programs in the United States and Europe. She is engaged as a motivational speaker and moderator at professional conferences around the topic of women's entrepreneurship and leadership in the country and abroad. She has gained international experience as a consultant in the field of certification and intellectual property protection. She actively contributes to the preservation of traditional heritage of Serbia and employment programs for women through the role of the founder and president of Ethno Network. 

Dragana Ilić is Corporate Affairs Director in CETIN ltd Belgrade, leading infrastructure telecommunications service provider, member of PPF Group. On top management level she is in charge of legal, regulatory, government relations and public affairs. She actively advocates reforms in the field of eCommunications and high-speed digital infrastructure in Serbia. Until August 2020 Dragana was collaborating with members and institutions in the capacity of NALED’s Head of Competitiveness and Digitalization Unit. She was Coordinator of the Government Expert Group for Combating Shadow Economy, NALED’s Fair Competition Alliance and eGovernment Alliance from its foundation in 2016. eGovernance Alliance was the key partner to the Government in developing strategic and regulatory framework for eBusiness, eArchiving, eGovernment, in establishing the Office for IT and eGovernment, promoting the eGovernment Portal and building cyber security capacity in local governments. Until 2015 in Government’s agency SIEPA Dragana was managing legal affairs in investment promotion and coordinating cooperation of the investors with the central and local governments. After graduating from the Faculty of Law, Belgrade University, Dragana was building her professional experience in public prosecution, tax administration and telecommunication company. She is distinctive of her enthusiasm in advocating reforms for common good. Apart from work, she can be seen while urban cycling or on top of some mountain.