Together for alternative funding of local initiatives

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. 

Daniela Funke, since 2011, has been working on the development, support and evaluation of GIZ projects in the areas of administrative reform, anti-corruption, procurement and external control, worldwide. In 2016, Daniela became the Senior Refugee and Migration Coordinator for Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. After many years of experience on various projects and topics, in April 2020, Daniela became the director of GIZ for Serbia.

Veran Matić is the President of the Management Board of the B92 Fund and since February 2020 he has been the Executive Director of the Serbian Philanthropic Forum. He has led many philanthropic and socially responsible actions and campaigns: Battle for Babies and Maternity Hospitals, Voluntary Blood Donation, Organ Donation and Increasing the Bank of Potential Bone Marrow Donors, Preventing Breast Cancer with a Mobile Mammogram, Against Domestic Violence, Building Six Safe Houses, and others. The socially responsible and philanthropic campaigns he led received the world's greatest awards - from the Bronze Lion at the Cannes Festival, through the awards of the European Festival of Creativity, CRESTA New York, the European Parliament Award, numerous Virtus Awards and UEPS Awards. Veran Matić is a well-known activist in the country and the world for media freedom and against impunity for violence against journalists and murders of journalists, and during all these years, he has won many national and international awards: French Order of the Legion of Honor, Sretenje Order of the Third Rank, Olof Palme Award, Global leader for the future of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Hero of Press Freedom of the International Journalists' Institute (one of fifty heroes of press freedom since World War II), Belgrade City Award for Journalism, Manager of the Year of the Serbian Association of Managers, and special VIRTUS award for philanthropy in Serbia.

Tisa Čaušević has been working on regulatory and policy issues since 2006, dealing with the topics of food, veterinary policy and agriculture. She started her career engagin in international cooperation paffairs in the Veterinary Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture. Aftrwards she started working for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on a project for countering the avian influenza (bird flu). Upon project completion, during a period of three years she worked within the USAID's Agribusiness project, being in charge of supporting the private sector development in the field of cattle breeding, later being appointed in the now-Ministry of European Integration, responsible u for coordinating the EU accession negotiation in the field of food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy, agriculture and rural development. After four years, she moved to a global IT company specializing in food compliance, being a Team leader for the project of establishing a regulatory platform based on new technologies, for international clients. Tisa attended professional development programs in London, UK (Food Standards Agency, DEFRA, 2015), France (l’ENA, SGAE, 2014), she was a speaker in a number of international conferences (London, Amsterdam), on-call lecturer at Master studies of the Faculty of Law on Belgrade on the EU integration topics (2015-2017) and a (co)author of a number of publications regarding the E legislation and EU integration process in the field of food and agriculture. Tisa is a veterinary physician, with completed European Master studies in food and safety and MBA studies in agribusiness. She speaks English and French.

Bojana Tošić graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Belgrade University in 2004. Her professional career started in 2005 when she became a legal trainee. In 2008 she entered the Register of Lawyers with the Bar Association of Belgrade. She has more than 10 years of experience in the area of regulatory reform, public administration reform, and public policy managementShe has worked as a consultant at numerous projects funded by the European Union, the World Bank (WB), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). During the period 2007-2011 she was a legal adviser at the Secretariat of the Council for Regulatory Reform and Regulatory Impact Assessment, and during the period 2008-2010 she worked as a coordinator of the legal team of the Unit for the Implementation of Comprehensive Regulatory Reform of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (the so-called regulatory guillotine).In July 2013 she became Deputy Director of the Government Office for Regulatory Reform and Regulatory Impact Assessment. She participated in the drafting of numerous regulations, studies and reports needed by both the public and the private sector. She is a certified World Bank trainer in the area of regulatory impact assessment.In April 2014 she was appointed Acting Deputy Director of the Public Policy Secretariat (PPS). On 31 January 2018 she was appointed Acting Director of the PPS.

Nathan has lived and worked in the Western Balkans for the past 22 years, developing an ever-increasing interest in engaged citizenship, social change, and catalyzing and advising local-sourced philanthropy. He has worked within/led international development programs focused on community engagement and civil society capacity building and grantmaking in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

As a Managing Board member, with his authority and contacts he has contributed to strengthening cooperation with local governments, expanding NALED membership and promoting the organization’s activities. He has demonstrated exceptional responsibility and willingness to engage on fostering NALED image through initiatives for the common good. As one of the pioneers of the “Art of Serbia” campaign, he helped in making Šid recognizable by its great names of art, such as Sava Šumanović and Ilija Bašičević Bosilj. As one of the first signatories of the declaration on bee protection, he also personally engaged as an advocate of NALED’s crowdfunding platform, aiming to foster cooperation with a border community in ensuring funds to support local initiatives. Working with the Executive Office, he acts with utmost responsibility and as a patron, striving to provide full support for successful realization of initiatives he takes part in. Approachable, reliable and always there for NALED.