Conference on Economic Reforms: Grey Book 2020

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.

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.

Siniša Mali was elected Minister of Finance of the Republic of Serbia on May 29th 2018. He was Mayor of Belgrade from the year 2014. During his term, The Mayor achieved significant investments in municipal infrastructure, has led a vast financial reconsolidation program to achieve sustainable fiscal stabilization and made Belgrade “a city filled with cranes and hardhats.” Before becoming Mayor, Siniša Mali served as Special Advisor for economic and financial affairs to the Prime Minister of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vučić.  Prior to this, he was a financial advisor and consultant in private practice and at Deloitte Financial Advisory Services, where he specialized in transactional work in M&A, financial advisory, financial restructuring, and in business consolidation of private and public enterprises. In 2001, he was appointed Assistant Minister for Privatization at the Ministry of the Economy and Privatization.  Later he served as the Director of Tender Privatizations at the Privatization Agency of the Republic of Serbia.   Prior to his appointment as the Assistant Minister for Privatization, he worked for Credit Suisse First Boston in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group in New York, NY.  Siniša Mali obtained his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Belgrade, School of Economics, and as a Ron Brown scholar, he received an MBA, specializing in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in the US.  In 2013, he defended his PhD dissertation on the topic of “Value Creation through Restructuring and Privatization – the Experience of Serbia,” at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Belgrade. Siniša Mali is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a member of: the CFA Institute, the Serbian Business Angels Network, the Fulbright Alumni Association of Serbia and British-Serbian Business Club.  He is a licensed portfolio manager at the Belgrade Stock Exchange, and has served previously as President of various boards of directors including those of Fiat Automobiles Serbia, Komercijalna Banka, Air Serbia, and as a BoD member of the Clinical Hospital Centers of Serbia.

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. 

Rebecca Fabrizi has been Deputy Head of Mission in Belgrade since September 2019. She moved to Serbia from Canberra, where she was Associate Director of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University, at Associate Professor level. Rebecca was previously Head of the China Department of the External Action Service of the European Union in Brussels. Earlier in her career she enjoyed FCO postings to our Embassies in Beijing and Rome, and to the UK Permanent Mission to the UN and WTO in Geneva. Rebecca holds an MA in Modern Languages from Oxford University and an MSc in Financial Economics from SOAS. She speaks Serbian, Chinese, Russian, Italian and French. Outside the office Rebecca enjoys trail running and long-distance triathlon, and exploring Europe with her husband, three sons and one German Shepherd.

Dorothea Gieselmann was born on 3 June 1974 in Buende, Germany. Since 24 July 2018, she has been the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Belgrade. Before that, she worked as the Deputy Head of EU Enlargement Division at the Federal Foreign Office and as the Political Officer at the German Embassy in Kabul in 2014. During the ten years of her diplomatic career from 2002 to 2012, she has been the Desk Officer for Afghanistan at the Federal Foreign Office, the Exhcange Diplomat at the Eastern Department of the Foreign Ministry of Poland, the Political Officer at the German Embassy in Warsaw, the Culture and Press Officer at the German Embassy in Skopje and the Desk Officer for Russia at the Federal Foreign Office. In 2002. she completed the Foreign Service training at the Foreign Service Academy. From 2001 to 2002, she work as a Scientific Assistant at the Institute for Churches of the East MA, Slavic Studies and History, University of Muenster. She has an MA in Slavic Studies and History from the University of Muenster.

Vladimir Novaković was appointed the Director of Apatinska Brewery and General Manager of Molson Coors for Serbia and Montenegro in November 2016. He started his career in the FMCG industry, in Fresh&Co company from Subotica. Since then, he has worked in Henkel, being responsible for the sales area in five countries of South East Europe, and served as the Director of Carnex, one of the largest food producers in Serbia. He has been engaged in beer industry for six years – he was a Commercial Director in ABI Serbia, supporting the team in reaching the largest market share. He rejoined Apatinska Brewery in 2013, taking the place of Sales Director and helped the company consolidate its operations in Serbia. He has been a member of NALED Managing Board since April 2017, being appointed as its President in July 2018. He graduated in economy, married with three children. He was a professional handball player and a member of the Serbian national team.

Dejan Đokić has been the Director of ASEE in Serbia since February 2017. He started the company engagement as Project Manager in 2005, and further career development led him to the position of Director of Profit center for infrastructure services. He has managed and took part in a number of projects of crucial importance for the company, in financial and public sector in the region, as well as major regional projects in the field telecommunications. Before joining ASEE, Dejan worked as engineer-associate in Jugoimport company and as technology engineer in Zepter International. He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade, earning a degree in the field of industrial engineering.