SEPTEMBER GATHERING 2022

H.E. Annika Ben David earned a master’s degree in Political Science in 1992 and graduated from the Diplôme d’Études Supérieures en Relations Internationales, Institut de Hautes Études Internationales, Geneva, Switzerland, in 1995. Following engagements with the UNHCR in the mid ‘90s, she served as a desk officer of the Department for Political Affairs at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996, then completed her diplomatic training during 1996-97. She served as Second Secretary (Political, Consular and Cultural) at the Embassy of Sweden in Tel Aviv, Israel (1997-2000), then First Secretary (Political, Economics, Trade) at the Embassy of Sweden in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2000-04), before later returning to the Embassy of Sweden to Israel as Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission (2006-10). From 2010 to ’13, she was Head of Section for Central, Eastern and Southern Africa at the ministry’s Africa Department, after which she was appointed Ambassador of Sweden to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2013-16). Prior to arriving in Belgrade, Ambassador Ben David served as Ambassador at large for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law at the Swedish Foreign Ministry (2016-21). A divorced mother of two, she is fluent in French and English and has a basic understanding of Hebrew and German.

Ana Brnabić was born in 1975 in Belgrade. She holds a master's degree (MBA) from the University of Hull from the United Kingdom and has worked for more than ten years with international organisations, foreign investors, local governments and the public sector in Serbia. In August 2016 she was elected Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and she held that position until the election for the Prime Minister. She is President of the Council for Innovative Entrepreneurship and Information Technologies of the Serbian government and of the National Minorities Council of the Republic of Serbia, as well as Vice President of the Public Administration Reform Council of the Republic of Serbia. As Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, she worked on a faster systematic introduction of e-government in Serbia, with the aim of more efficient work of state administration and local self-government, direct raising of the quality of life of citizens of Serbia, building more modern and transparent administration and fighting corruption. Two most important projects implemented in this segment during her term are e-Baby ("Baby, Welcome to the World") and e-ZUP (full implementation of the Law on General Administrative Procedure). As President of the Council for Innovative Entrepreneurship and Information Technologies of the Serbian government, in day-to-day consultations with IT industry from Serbia, start-ups and innovative companies, she developed the Action Plan and started its fast implementation. In the fight against grey economy, she was in charge of the implementation of the "Take the Receipt and Win" raffle, in which more than 40% of Serbian citizens participated, which resulted in a significantly increased awareness of the importance of the fight against the grey economy. She is a member of the “New Leaders for Europe” group within the World Economic Forum. Prior to her election to the Serbian government, she was Director of Continental Wind Serbia (CWS), where she worked on the implementation of an investment worth €300 million in the wind farm in the municipality of Kovin. She took part in the establishment and was the first executive director, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit foundation Peksim. She worked at various US consulting companies that were implementing the projects financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Serbia. She was Deputy Director of the Serbia Competitiveness Project, an expert on the Programme of reform of the local self-government in Serbia and a senior coordinator of the Programme for economic development of municipalities. She actively participated in the establishment of the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) in 2006. She became a member, and then the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of NALED. She has received numerous awards for the development projects she has worked on, for the promotion of social responsibility and tolerance.

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.

In August 2020 Dragana Sotirovski was elected the first female Mayor in the history of Niš city. She was born in Aleksinac where she graduated from the Pedagogical Academy and the Music School. She graduated from the Faculty of Geography at the University of Belgrade and completed her master studies in Tourism at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Niš She started working as a journalist in 1992 in the editorial office of the Radio Television Serbia Morning Program. From 1997 she worked  first as a reporter and then as the Head of the Radio Television Serbia Correspondence Office in Niš. She is the author of numerous informative articles, documentaries, travelogues and short films from the country and abroad, which are permanently saved in the Program Archives of RTS. For years she reported on the activities of the Serbian state leadership and statesmen from the region. She is the winner of numerous awards and recognitions at international and domestic festivals of journalistic creativity among which is the award for journalistic courage.From December 2017 to 2020 she was the Head of the Nišava Administrative District. She is married, a mother of three children and a grandmother of two grandchildren.

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.