Competitiveness and Investments Department

Dušan has been dealing with regulatory reforms in the field of public administration and economic development since 2001. He has cooperated with NALED in various roles, ever since the organization was established, currently as a Competitiveness and Investments Department Director. He took part in devising the concept and realizing NALED's Grey Book, the campaign Ask When, the Regulatory Index of Serbia and the Business Friendly Certification in South East Europe. Some of the reforms where he had one of the leading roles refer to the issues of real estate registration, construction permitting, abolishing para-fiscal charges, labor legislation, property taxation, land use and development fees, decentralization and strengthening the authorities and capacities of local governments. He is a member of multiple working groups established by the Government and line ministries, including the Joint Group for Improving Serbia's Position in the World Bank's Doing Business List. From 2018 to early 2019 he was a senior expert in business legislation for the Serbia Investment Climate project by IFC as part of the World Bank Group. Prior to this, he was a Business Policy and Economic Governance Director in USAID Business Enabling Project (USAID BEP), and later served as the Deputy Chief of Party for the same project. From 2002 to 2010 he led policy teams in USAID projects dealing with decentralization and local economic development. From 2001 he was Project Director in the Public Administration and Local Government Center (PALGO). He has a PhD degree in economics, a Magister degree in local economic development, and he graduated from the Faculty o Political Sciences in Belgrade. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy from Boston, USA, and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences. His expert and scientific works have been published in Serbian, English and Spanish.

Irena has eight years of experience in regulatory reform in the field of digitization, entrepreneurship and innovation gained by working on projects supported by international and bilateral donors (EU, GIZ, USAID), currently in the position of Head of the Unit for Digitization, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in NALED. She is the author of numerous analyzes in this domain, including the Gray Book of Innovations, Analyzes of the expansion of the system of simplified engagement of workers in temporary and casual jobs, Analyzes of the tax and non-tax burden of beginners in business, Guide for freelancers, etc. In her previous work, she actively contributed to the introduction of the first tax exemption for business beginners, the reform of the system of hiring seasonal workers and freelancers, the legal regulation and recognition of innovative entities in Serbia, as well as the conditions for the use of light electric vehicles and the testing of autonomous vehicles on roads. She is a regular member of the Government's working groups for drafting and amending regulations in the field of digitization, entrepreneurship, and innovation, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration, she coordinated the development of a software solution for simplified reporting of freelancers' income. So far, she has organized and held more than 50 trainings for public servants and entrepreneurs on the topic of tax breaks for small businesses and innovators, freelancer income reporting, smart cities, etc. She completed her basic studies in journalism at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade as a student of the generation, and after that she completed her multidisciplinary master's studies in Terrorism, Organized Crime and Security at the University of Belgrade. She is currently studying for a PhD in Political Science at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. She speaks English and Italian

Mihailo completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at the Faculty of International Economics. He began his professional career as a project assistant and later as a researcher at the Belgrade Open School. He continued to build his experience at the Libertarian Club as an economic researcher, and later at the Catalyst Foundation, where he held the position of Research Manager. During this period, he focused on topics such as public finance, public administration reform, the quality of the regulatory framework, and education policy. Mihailo has participated in numerous international seminars and conferences and has published papers in both national and international conference proceedings and academic journals. He is an alumnus of the 18th generation of the DAUS program of the Belgrade Open School and the Annual Seminar of the BFPE Foundation. He is proficient in English, French, Italian, and Japanese. He joined the NALED team in September 2024.

Milica is an experienced regulatory expert and researcher with over 9 years of experience in practical policy research and large database processing. Milica participated in about 30 projects (EU, GIZ, USAID, EBRD) as a regulatory expert, researcher/analyst or project manager. She managed teams of domestic and international researchers and independently carried out the entire research process, from developing methodology, methodological tools (questionnaires, databases, etc.), through collection (through surveys, interviews, focus groups), to data processing, development of practical " turnkey" recommendation and presentation to decision makers. Her main area of ​​expertise is "business process" analysis and GAP analysis with a focus on digitization and optimization of public services, as well as research in the field of demographic trends and the labor market. She participated in the development and/or implementation of numerous public reforms, including the introduction of a system for the electronic issuance of building permits and the introduction of a system for digitizing procedures for registering and approving subsidies in agriculture - eAgrar. She gained managerial experience leading the Research Unit at NALED, after which she moved to the position of Research Advisor, where her main focus is providing research support for the implementation of regulatory activities that are horizontal and include multiple sectors. Milica holds a master's degree from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, where she worked as an assistant on the courses Basics of Economics and International Economics. She speaks fluent Serbian and English, and also speaks Spanish.

Aleksandar completed his undergraduate studies in Economics at the Faculty of International Economics and his master's studies in Political Science at the Faculty of Political Sciences. He began building his professional experience at the Ministry of European Integration as a Coordinator for Negotiation Chapters related to the Single Market, where he was involved in coordinating and participating in Serbia's EU accession negotiations and conducting comparative analysis of Serbia's legal and economic systems in alignment with EU standards. He then moved to the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade in the Sector for Multilateral Cooperation and Foreign Trade Policy, where he worked on trade and economic cooperation with the EU, coordinated the National Coordination Body for trade facilitation between Serbia and the public and private sectors, and developed Action Plans for trade facilitation. Throughout his career, he has furthered his education, including at Sciences Po in Paris, interned in Slovenia and Poland, attended training in Geneva on the functioning of the World Trade Organization, and lectured on the EU Single Market at the Future Studies module of the Belgrade Open School and the PoliticKAS module. He joined the NALED team in May 2024.  

Slađana Stešević graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Montenegro, where she also completed her specialist studies. She obtained her master’s degree in civil law from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade. Slađana is a project management expert with extensive experience in the Western Balkans region, specializing in the coordination of internationally funded projects and programs in the fields of environmental protection, policy, and institutional development. She has experience in leading and coordinating projects funded by the EU, SIDA, IUCN, and JICA, including contract management, procurement, budgeting, and reporting, with full compliance with donor procedures. She is also experienced in managing the entire project cycle – from preparing tenders and writing project proposals to implementing and monitoring activities. She joined the NALED team in May 2024. She joined the NALED team in July 2025.

Dušan completed his undergraduate studies in International Relations at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. He began building his professional experience in the field of financial leasing at "Hypo Alpe-Adria Leasing," where he worked as a Legal Advisor. Following this, he met the requirements to take and successfully passed the judicial exam before the Ministry of Justice. Dušan then transitioned to the banking sector, holding the position of Senior Legal Advisor at several commercial banks, with a focus on debt collection. His most recent role was at MaxBet in the Compliance Department, where he actively worked on regulatory monitoring, business compliance, data protection, and the development of internal policies. He joined the NALED team in May 2024.

Milos began his career at NALED in 2019, working on the project "Optimization of the Healthcare Network - Health Masterplan." Since then, he has been engaged in the Research and Analytics unit as a researcher/analyst responsible for conducting research and preparing analyses on numerous projects such as Public Procurement and Good Governance for Increased Competitiveness, Establishment of a Platform for a Favorable Business Environment in the Region, and the National Initiative for Cashless Payments. In addition, he performs economic analysis and statistical and descriptive data processing in various areas where NALED is implementing regulatory reform and monitoring institutions, contributing to the development of numerous publications, including the Regulatory Index of Serbia, Local eGovernment Index, Research on Public-Private Dialogue and Legislative Process, and Research on Citizens' Attitudes toward the Shadow Economy and Cashless Payments. By defending his master's thesis on the topic "Critical Analysis of the Institutional Framework of Public-Private Partnerships in the Republic of Serbia," he earned the title of Master Economist at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. During his studies at the same faculty, he held the position of vice president of the debate club and won numerous debating tournaments.