NALED 2030: NEW GROWTH VISION

Edward Ferguson took over as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Serbia in July 2023. Before coming to Belgrade, Edward served as the Minister Counsellor Defence at the British Embassy in Washington DC in September 2018. Together with the Defence Attaché, he led the British Defence Staff (United States), a network of 1,000 people spread across 28 States. As the UK’s senior policy adviser on defence relations with the United States, he was responsible for UK-US collaboration on strategic planning, nuclear policy and programmes, trade and acquisition, and science and technology. He was the US Network’s lead on HMG’s Integrated Review and AUKUS, and the senior champion for the Race, Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Group. Previously, he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2014 to 2018, where he created and led a new international strategy, co-launched by the British and German Foreign Ministers, that re-energised Euro-Atlantic integration after years of stagnation while stimulating economic growth and reducing high levels of youth unemployment. A former Exhibitioner and Choral Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, where he was also Treasurer of the Oxford Union, Edward graduated with First Class Honours in Classics in 2001. Joining the Graduate Fast Stream of the Ministry of Defence, he started out in the Naval Staff before joining the Iraq Secretariat during the build-up to and subsequent execution of Operation TELIC. In 2003, he was involved in financial and requirement scrutiny of the Department’s future helicopter procurement programme. From 2004 to 2006, he managed a national award-winning £300-million programme to consolidate the MOD estate in Greater London and to redevelop RAF Northolt. In 2006, he volunteered for an operational tour, serving as Political Advisor to a British Battlegroup in Maysaan Province, Iraq (while his brother was a troop leader with the British Army in Basra). On his return, he took on responsibility for the strategic management of the UK’s bilateral defence relations with the United States, Canada and Western Europe. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as Private Secretary to three Defence Secretaries, acting as their closest adviser on issues relating to operations in Iraq, the £6-billion defence equipment programme, science & technology, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy. In 2009, he was appointed the Head of Afghanistan and Pakistan Policy, responsible for advice to the National Security Council on the policy, financial, legal, parliamentary and presentational aspects of the UK military contribution to operations in Afghanistan, and on the long-term defence role and interests in Pakistan. From 2011 to 2014, he was Head of Defence Strategy and Priorities, leading two teams, one responsible for leading the MOD’s contribution to developing the 2015 National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review, and the other for prioritising the MOD’s international defence engagement activities. In 2013, he graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc with Distinction in Strategy and Diplomacy. He has been a member of the RCDS Strategic Advisory Panel, a member of the US Air Force Grand Strategy Advisory Board, and is a graduate of the PINNACLE Command and Staff course.

H.E. Andreas von Beckerath, born 16 January 1971 in Sollentuna, near Stockholm, has served as Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia since August 2025. He brings to this role more than two decades of distinguished diplomatic service with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden and the European External Action Service, having held postings in key European capitals and within major multilateral institutions. A graduate of Uppsala University, he also pursued academic studies at the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance and the University of Dortmund. Prior to joining the diplomatic service, he headed the Moscow office of EF Education, gaining valuable experience in international business and intercultural communication. His career at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs includes senior assignments such as Political Adviser at the Embassy in Berlin, Second Secretary at the Embassies in Moscow and Bucharest, member of Sweden’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, and Deputy Head of Mission in London. From 2013 to 2016, he served as Sweden’s Ambassador to Ukraine during a pivotal period for that country’s relations with the European Union. Upon returning to Stockholm, he led the Department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and in 2023 was appointed Sweden’s Ambassador to Poland. He is fluent in English, German, and Russian, and has working knowledge of French and Dutch. He is married to sociologist Anna Rinder von Beckerath.

Anne-Charlotte Malm is the Head of the Development Cooperation Section at the Swedish Embassy in Belgrade. Anne-Charlotte has over thirty years of experience working within the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, both in Stockholm and in Swedish Embassies in Vietnam, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Guatemala. She holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering. The Swedish development cooperation with Serbia focuses on the EU-integration and increased prosperity. Sweden supports areas such as human rights, democracy, gender equality, peace, environment, and inclusive economic growth. During her career, Anne-Charlotte has had a special interest in inclusive economic development and collaboration with the private sector.

Vladislav Cvetkovic is Director of Advisory Services in “PricewaterhouseCoopers” in Belgrade since 2013. He served as the Director of Privatization Agency from 2009 to 2013, managing all activities on the Serbian privatization agenda, including the improvement of privatization-related legislation. From 2001 to 2007 he was engaged in the National Bank of Serbia and the Agency for Deposit Insurance, as Advisor to the Governor and the leading advisor for privatization of banks. During this period, he led a number of projects related to banking sector reform and was directly engaged in formulating and successful implementation of the strategy and privatization of significant financial institutions in the country, also leading on several of the largest privatization projects in Serbia so far. From 2004 to 2005 he was a Council member in the National Bank of Serbia, and the Managing Board President in Komercijalna banka AD Beograd from 2006 to 2009. His professional career started in financial consulting in “Deloitte”, Belgrade, in 1994-2000, as well as in academia, as he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Economy in Belgrade, at the Business Finance and Accounting department.

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 is a member of the Regional Council as the umbrella body of the Network for a Favorable Business Environment, which brings together state institutions and sector organizations from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro to institutionalize mechanisms for cooperation and strengthening the competitiveness of the region. 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. 

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.