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Speakers

AI and Biotechonlogy

KRIS VERBURGH

Kris is a medical doctor, researcher, lecturer focused on longevity and future of medicine and biotechnology. He is a founder of a new scientific field "nutrigerontology" which studies the impact of nutrition on the aging and aging-related diseases and personalized medicine. His first book published at the age of 16, made him the youngest author of a science book in Europe. He researches the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on medicine, health and our bodies. Kris is a lecturer on new developments and paradigm shifts in medicine, healthcare and the science of aging and he gave talks for Google, the European Parliament, Cambridge University, Procter and Gamble, Singularity University, King's College London, and various other organizations, companies and universities.
Mr. Laso Ballesteros
Cabinet Expert at Commissioner Gabriel Cabinet for Innovation, research, education, culture and Youth

LASO BALLESTEROS

Dr. Kira Radinsky
Chairperson and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics

KIRA RADINSKY

Dr. Kira Radinsky is the chairperson and CTO of Diagnostic Robotics, where the most advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence are harnessed to make healthcare better, cheaper, and more widely available.
In the past, she co-founded SalesPredict, acquired by eBay in 2016, and served as eBay director of data science and IL chief scientist.
One of the up-and-coming voices in the data science community, she is pioneering the field of medical data mining.
Dr. Radinsky gained international recognition for her work at Microsoft Research, where she developed predictive algorithms that recognized the early warning signs of globally impactful events, including political riots and disease epidemics. In 2013, she was named to the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Young Innovators Under 35, in 2015 as Forbes 30 under 30 rising stars in enterprise technology, and in 2016 selected as "woman of the year" by Globes. She is a frequent presenter at global tech events, including TEDx, Wired, Strata Data Science, Techcrunch and academic conferences, and she publishes in the Harvard Business Review.
Radinsky serves as a board member in: Israel Securities Authority, Maccabi Research Institute, and technology board of HSBC bank.
Dr. Radinsky also serves as visiting professor at the Technion, Israel’s leading science and technology institute, where she focuses on the application of predictive data mining in medicine.
Nikola Otašević
Engineering at Facebook

NIKOLA OTAŠEVIĆ

Nikola Otasevic is the Head of engineering for Facebook Jobs, where he leads an org that is building the next generation hiring platform for the world. Nikola got into the jobs space through Refdash, a company that he co-founded in 2016. He grew Refdash from an idea in his head to a profitable company that he eventually sold to Facebook.

Prior to Refdash, Nikola was at Google, where he worked on developing machine learning solutions for Google’s local search. Google previously acquired Room 77, a startup in which Nikola was an early engineer.

Nikola earned a Master’s degree in Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence from MIT, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from MIT. He graduated from Mathematical High School in Belgrade.

Female Narratives Cofounder, FORBES 30 UNDER 30 2019

TIJANA TAMBURIĆ

Tijana co-founded Female Narratives two years ago with fellow model Franzi Klein. After 10 years in the modelling industry (having been scouted at the age of 15) she was dropped, without warning, by her agency for not being thin enough. Disillusioned with the system of both modelling and ad agencies, Tamburic wanted to utilize her other skills and passions that were never encouraged by her agency. That's why she started Female Narratives: a creative agency that operates using a collective of female-only talent to tell stories through women. It brings together over 100 creative women ranging from directors to artists to poets. Clients include Bumble, North Face, W Hotels, Kiehl's and dozens of female-led sustainable and ethical brands.
Software engineer and product developer

NIKOLA SPASOJEVIĆ

Title: Natural Language Processing methods and Machine Learning

Nikola is Software Engineer (Machine Learning/Natural Language Processing) graduated with a Bachelors in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge. Nikola has previously worked at Samsung in Korea, Credit Suisse in Switzerland and Amazon in Germany (as part of the Alexa Machine Learning Division).
Currently, he is working for JobCloud, the largest job portal in Switzerland, on developing products that will connect jobs with qualified candidates via semantic search.
Nikola’s team is using Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to enable jobseekers to discover the right job that will utilise their skills to their full potential, as well as employers to discover highly qualified candidates they would have overlooked otherwise. His mission is to provide an opportunity for everyone who has the right skills and create a society where everyone is fulfilled with what they do professionally.

PhD, Research Scientist in Metabolism, Universite de Geneve

SANDA LJUBIČIĆ

Sanda Ljubičić is a Research Scientist and Lecturer in Metabolism at the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva, Switzerland. Sanda possesses a doctorate in Life Sciences and has a significant experience in academic environment acquired in different countries (United States, Switzerland, Serbia, and France). Her field of research/expertise encompasses metabolic diseases, diabetes, insulin deficiency and pancreatic islets biology. Besides research, she is interested in public health, scientific communication and entrepreneurship in the biomedical area.
In 2014, while being part of a biotech start-up company in Geneva, Sanda also initiated a drug discovery program in the field of diabetes for the search of small molecules targeting specific receptors within pancreatic islets. With her team, she was also able to get the prestigious Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation award allowing the company to develop the project.
PhD, Medicinal chemist, DKFZ German Cancer Research Center

JELENA BOŽILOVIĆ

Jelena studied Chemistry at the University of Nis. She obtained her PhD from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Goethe University Frankfurt in 2008, followed by postdoctoral work at the same institute. The main focus of her work was on the development of synthetic oligonucleotides for therapeutic use (antisense oligonucleotides and RNAi). She also played a leading role in setting up a start-up company developing methods for analyzing viral genotypes. The innovation was awarded at the Science4Life competition (2013.) Business concept and innovation was awarded in 2014 with the Goethe Innovation Prize. In 2016, she joined the group of Prof. Knapp as a medicinal chemist and is currently working on development of molecules for the targeted degradation of kinases and bromodomains in cancer therapy (PROTACs).
Dubravka Negre
Head of EIB Regional Representation for the Western Balkans

DUBRAVKA NÈGRE

Dubravka comes from Luxembourg where she has been working in the Lending Operations of the EIB. Dubravka was responsible for Public-Private Partnerships and Project Finance operations in Ireland, France, UK, and Benelux. She initiated the establishment of the Western Balkan Investment Framework (WBIF) and the Western Balkan Enterprise Development Innovation Facility (WB EDIF). Before joining EIB, she worked in the media as a Television Producer for CNN, covering conflicts in the Balkans and the war in Afghanistan, for which she won an award in the USA from the US National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences. She graduated Finance and Banking at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, and holds a Master degree in International Finance and Management from Bocconi University in Milan and Anderson School of Management in Los Angeles.
Marijana Vasilescu
President of the Executive Board of Sberbank Srbija

MARIJANA VASILESCU

Marijana Vasilescu has been the President of the Executive Board of Sberbank of Serbia since December 2016. Since taking office, Vasilescu has set ambitious goals in further digitizing the bank, increasing its customer base and improving efficiency.

Prior to assuming the position of President of the Executive Board of Sberbank Serbia, Marijana was a member of the Executive Board of this bank in charge of the segments of individuals and micro clients, network, partnerships and digital channels, as well as marketing and communications.

Marijana has extensive experience in the international banking sector, which she gained while working for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Romania as Director of the Retail and Affluent Banking Sector.

She was also the Director of the Retail Sector at RBS (formerly ABN AMRO Bank) in Moscow, and worked at Home Credit Bank in Kazakhstan as a member of the Executive Board. Prior to her career in the banking sector, Marijana held senior positions in various international FMCG companies within Central and Eastern Europe.
Marijana Vasilescu completed her MBA studies at London Business School. She also graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Bucharest, where she earned a master's degree in marketing.

Author of the book "Deep Learning for Programmers"

NIKOLA ŽIVKOVIĆ

Nikola Zivkovic is CAIO and team leader with over 10 years of experience. During this time span in the industry, he worked on both, smaller web projects and large enterprise solutions. In the past couple of years, he specialized in the area of machine learning, deep learning and AI, and he advocates merging this knowledge with good software developers' practices. He is the author of the book "Deep Learning for Programmers" and numerous online courses for Pack publishing. He loves to share his knowledge, so you can often find him speaking at meetups, conferences and as a guest lecturer at the University of Novi Sad. More about his interest can be found on the blog Rubik's Code.
Nina Angelovska
Minister of Finance of the Republic of North Macedonia

NINA ANGELOVSKA

Nina Angelovska was born on 13th July 1988 in Skopje, Macedonia. In short, her life path looks like this:
He finished secondary education in Rade Jovcevski - Korcagin Gymnasium. In 2010, she graduated as a student of the year in E-Business at the Faculty of Economics, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, with 9.94 average grade. At the same time, she received the Manning Award for The Best Student of the Generation in Economic Science.
During her studies, Nina was engaged as a demonstrator at the Faculty of Economics for the following subjects: Mathematics for Business, Statistics for Business and Web Design, at the same time taking part in several national and international competitions. As for the international competitions, the most important one is the Balkan Case Challenge in Vienna, supported by WUS Austria, where Nina won the 3rd place, while with respect to the national competitions, she reached the greatest success at the most innovative business plan competition organized by the National Centre for Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Learning, where she won the first place, and thus she small funding grant for launching her business idea.
She started her professional career by establishing the first website for group discounts in Macedonia - Grouper.mk, immediately after her graduation, thus putting her knowledge into practice. Grouper has provided for boosting the e-commerce market in the country, reaching huge success, becoming leader in the market and acquiring numerous awards and certificates of acknowledgment.
At the same time, Nina continues her education at the Faculty of Economics Skopje within Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, acquiring the Master's Degree in E-Business Management. In 2013, she started the PhD/doctoral studies, and became a Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Sciences and Management within Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, in 2016.
Given her 9-year experience in managing the leading e-commerce company and the successful entrepreneurial story, Nina is a speaker, trainer and mentor at numerous events, conferences and academies. As of 2012 until today, Angelovska has participated as a speaker in over 300 domestic and international events among which the Digital Western Balkans Summit in London, Forbes 30 under 30 Summit in Sofia, UNCTAD E-Commerce Week in Geneva, and many others.
Her passion, desire and enthusiasm for work, progress and changes, as well as thesynergy of science and practical work, has provided her with many opportunities. Nina has been engaged as a consultant in many different projects among which those related to UNCTAD. Macedonian Telecom (Makedonski Telekom), and others. In 2017, the US Embassy nominated her to take part in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 held in India, where Angelovska participated as an entrepreneurial representative of our country.
By having a mission to create favorable climate for growth and development of the industry, she initiated the establishment of the first Macedonian E-Commerce Association in December 2017, which Angelovska runs as her President.
She is co - author of the published comprehensive E-commerce Analysis Report titled: "Readiness, Potential, Actual State, Barriers And Recommendations For E-Commerce Development in the Republic of Macedonia", published in June 2018.
Under the US State Department Program, "Tech Innovation and Entrepreneurship Professional Fellows Program”, during the period April-May 2018, Angelovska stayed in the USA, where she worked at Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, DePaul Univeristy, in Chicago.
Her potential and hard work is internationally recognized. In 2016, the renowned German Magazine the Hundert ranked Angelovska among the 100 Female Startup Founders Europe, while in 2018, Forbes honored her with the prestigious 30 Under 30 award for Europe in the retail sale and e-commerce category.
As of 2018, Angelovska has been a Management Board Member of the European eCommerce and Omni Channel Trade Association (EMOTA) and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Ecommerce Foundation. In 2019, she also became member of the Management Board of the Economic Chamber of Macedonia.
In addition, in 2019, Angelovska was promoted by UNCTAD as eTrade Women Advocate.
Luka Babić
HR / workforce / people / human capital analytics and diagnostics | Founder at Orgnostic

LUKA BABIĆ

Luka Babic is an intrapreneur who turned entrepreneur. Luka served as the Head of People Operations at Infobip, one of Europe's biggest tech unicorns, for over six years. Before starting his company, Luka took charge of setting and directing Infobip's People Ops function as the company scaled from 250 to 1500 employees in more than 50 locations.

In his current venture, Luka collaborates with university professors from his alma mater, Harvard University, and the I-O psychology powerhouse, University of Michigan, to bring academic research data and insights into the hands of business leaders around the globe. With the human capital diagnostics startup, Orgnostic, he is on a mission to help leaders worldwide make smarter organizational decisions with the help of technology, data, and domain expertise.

Ana Ranitović
PhD, Project leader / Research Analytics Policy at University of Groningen

ANA RANITOVIĆ

Ana Ranitović is an anthropologist turned entrepreneur with a passion for building projects and businesses from the ground up. She holds a BA in Sociology, a PhD in Anthropology obtained at the University of Oxford as a Chevening and Clarendon scholar, and 10+ years in analytics, qualitative research and development. She has channeled this experience into creating value for communities by growing several successful social entrepreneurial and startup projects, most recently, as co-founder and CEO scaling Serbian edtech startup Campster to six countries and so far serving over 500k individuals in South East Europe.
Hajdi Cenan
Co-founder and CEO of airt Vice President Croatian AI Association

HAJDI CENAN

As she describes herself, Hajdi Cenan is a non-tech person in the tech world, life-long learner, travel & wine lover, a believer in benefits of equality, and hater of writing short bios.
In her previous life, she was the Executive marketing director and Director of tourism publishing in Europapress holding (now Hanza Media) and COO of DRAP, the most-awarded digital marketing/tech/innovation agency in Croatia.
Currently, she is the co-founder and CEO of her newest venture, AI startup airt that enables banks to easily and quickly implement and use the power of artificial intelligence on their data. She is also one of the co-founders of PWN Zagreb, the association that promotes equality and gender-balanced leadership, as well as vice president of the Croatian AI association.
Igor Bogićević
CTO, Co-Founder at Orgnostic

IGOR BOGIĆEVIĆ

Igor is a senior executive with extensive experience in scalable and distributed architectures and complex partner integrations with 20 years of experience in various domains of the tech industry. He is currently CTO and co-founder of Orgnostic Inc. - human capital diagnostic platform. Prior to that, he was CTO and co-founder of Seven Bridges, an industry leader in biomedical data analysis recognized by MIT Tech Review as one of the smartest 50 companies in 2016.
Zoran Vasiljev
Group CEO at Centili

ZORAN VASILJEV

Zoran Vasiljev is the Group CEO of Centili, a growing global digital monetization company. He is also the Group Strategist at Infobip.
Zoran is an executive with extensive knowledge and legacy in building and running successful digital ventures. He is specialized in telecommunications, investment strategies, M&A, organizational transformation, marketing and product development, channel strategy and business development.
He has more than 25 years’ international experience in digital media, telecoms, and management consulting. Before joining Centili, he led projects in the EU, MENA and APAC, holding top executive and leadership roles with Apigate, Axiata Digital, StarHub, Arthur D. Little, Value Partners and Peppers & Rogers Group.
Ivanka Višnjić
Associate Professor of Innovation at ESADE Business School

IVANKA VIŠNJIĆ

Ivanka Visnjic is Associate Professor of Innovation at ESADE Business School, where she also acts as Director of the Institute for Innovation and Knowledge Management. Ivanka worked at consulting firm McKinsey & Co, completed her PhD at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and held visiting posts at University of Cambridge where she also helped set up business-led partnership, Cambridge Service Alliance.
Ivanka’s research, teaching and advisory activities focus on discontinuous technological
shifts and disruptive and radical innovation in products, services and business models. Her research has been published in well-established academic journals and she received a number of awards and grants, including Poets & Quants’ 40 under 40 Professors in 2020, IBM Faculty Award in 2012 and others. She led joint research projects, gave keynote speeches, hosted workshops and worked closely with C-suite and senior management teams of a number of global companies.
Majlinda Bregu
Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council

MAJLINDA BREGU

Mrs. Bregu graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tirana and obtained a Master’s degree in Social and Political Science from the same university. In 2005 she was awarded a PhD in Sociology from the University of Urbino, Italy.

Immediately after her graduation in 1996, Mrs. Bregu started her academic career as lecturer of "Research Methods in Social Sciences" and "Academic Writing". In 1992 she began to collaborate as a part time anchor in the News Department at the Albanian Public Television, and later on as investigative journalist documenting the poignant issues of trafficking of women and domestic violence. In 2004 she was appointed as the national coordinator of the first National Gender Institute established in Albania.

Her media experience and full time academic career ended in 2005 when she got involved in politics. For three consecutive legislatures (2005-2017) she was elected a Member of Parliament of Albania, as a Democratic Party member (Centre Right). In July 2005, Mrs. Bregu was elected as the president of the Albanian Parliamentary Delegation to the EU-Albania Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee. She was also the chair of the sub-Committee on Gender Equality and Minors. From March 2007 to September 2013, she served as Minister of European Integration, National IPA Coordinator and the Government Spokesperson. Majlinda Bregu is the longest-serving Minister of European Integration in Albania.

During 2013 – 2017, Mrs. Bregu chaired the European Integration Committee of the Albanian Parliament. From 2015-2017 she also chaired the National Council for European Integration which is the highest consultative body on European Integration that promotes and guarantees the inclusive cooperation among political forces, public institutions and civil society. In both duties she encouraged an all-inclusive and far-reaching consensus in the Integration-related reforms and promoted the importance of the membership perspective for the stability of the region. She was an active contributor for the approval by the Parliament of the comprehensive justice reform which is currently perceived as a good-practice example for the Western Balkans and EU neighbourhood countries. Mrs. Bregu initiated several legal initiatives against gender-based and domestic violence, which are currently in force.

Majlinda Bregu was born in Tirana on 19 May 1974. Married, and mother of two. Fluent in English, Italian, and good in Spanish.

Aleksandar Cabrilo
CEO at HTEC Group

ALEKSANDAR CABRILO

I am a founder and CEO of HTEC Group, a consulting and technology R&D services company, headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Serbia, Scandinavia, and the UK, working with global customers in various verticals enabling digital transformation, corporate innovation, and venture acceleration, developing digital products used by millions all over the world.

I truly believe that the organizational excellence and sustainable business growth come from creating an environment that empowers people to become the best versions of themselves, from a corporate culture based on trust, transparency and constant drive for self-improvement and personal growth.

I love what I do at HTEC, working with some of the best people in the industry, and being able to blend sophisticated engineering with bursting creativity to build products and enterprises of the future.
I'm also an active member at YPO Global One chapter and also a member of the Association for Corporate Growth - ACG Silicon Valley.

My number one goal in life is to be a good father and a good husband, to live a life of integrity and honesty, and be a positive example for my children on how to walk through the world.

Tara Shirvani
PhD, Sustainable Infrastructure Group Lead- EBRD Community of Practice for Disruptive Technologies

TARA SHIRVANI

Tara Shirvani is an Iranian-Austrian thought leader, speaker, scientific advisor and international activist on climate change, energy policy and technological innovation. She is currently working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and was previously at the World Bank in Washington DC. She is Aviva’s Women of the Future and a Forbes 30 under 30 Awardee.
She received a Masters in Engineering for Sustainable Development from Cambridge University at the age of 21 and a Postgraduate Degree (PhD) at the age of 25 in Inorganic Chemistry from Oxford University. Shirvani is fluent in German, English, French and Farsi.
Shirvani is a strong advocate of third-generation biofuels from sources such as micro- and macroalgae while being highly critical of first-generation biofuels due to the effect on food prices and the subsequent effect on the developing world. She further strongly supports second-generation biofuels, however, which are manufactured from inedible biomass such as corn stover, wood chips or straw.
Emina Ćehajić
Vice President Business Development NSoft

EMINA ĆEHAJIĆ

Growing up and living in The Netherlands, Emina spent the majority of her professional life in the international corporate world at Jacobs Douwe Egberts Peet`s Group, the largest pure-play coffee and tea company in the world. Emina, a firm believer of transformational leadership and emotional intelligence successfully led various sales & customer care teams. For the past six years she provided mentorship and training within NSoft and is currently responsible for launching and penetrating the innovation pipeline (AI boosted products) within business development.
Milan Nedeljković
Founder & Lead Modelling at EM Analytic Solutions and the Dean & Associate Professor at FEFA

MILAN NEDELJKOVIĆ

Prof Milan Nedeljkovic (PhD Econometrics, University of Warwick) is the Founder & Lead Modelling at EM Analytic Solutions and the Dean & Associate Professor at FEFA, Belgrade. He has 15+ years of global and local experience in delivering BI solutions across B2C and B2B industries. His scientific work was published in leading international economic and statistics journals and presented at major global conferences. He is also a Research Affiliate at CESifo, Munich and a long-term consultant for the World Bank Group.
Adrienne Edgar
Director - People Development and Culture at Nutanix

ADRIENNE EDGAR

Adrienne is an experienced performance coach and facilitator who consults in the areas of Leadership and Influence, Persuasive Communication, Consultative Sales and Change Management.

She has extensive experience and has previously worked with clients in Media, Advertising, Banking and Finance, and Professional Services.
She currently works at Nutanix as a Director in the People Development and Culture team and is responsible for designing, developing, and facilitating innovative global solutions to support the growth and development of employees at Nutanix. She is also the global head of the women’s alliance and diversity group at Nutanix and an advocate for ensuring a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Prior to joining Nutanix, she held a variety of senior sales, marketing, and training roles in the healthcare area. She has had experience in leading and motivating sales teams as well as coaching at both an individual and team level for high performance.
Adrienne’s pragmatic and empathetic style enables her to connect and work well with a wide range of clients from senior leaders and management teams through to mid-level executives and individual contributors. She uses practical techniques and methodologies to help clients achieve their business and personal goals.

Adrienne received her degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand and is a registered coach and MBTI practitioner.

Sara Del Fabbro
CEO & CSO - IKEA South East Europe (Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine)

SARA DEL FABBRO

Proud IKEA co-worker, committed to create a better everyday life for the many and striving for gender equality. Inspired by the belief that "Happiness is not reaching your goal. Happiness is being on the way. It is our wonderful fate to be just at the beginning." (Ingvar Kamprad)
Tanja Tatomirović
Microsoft Head of PR, Communications and Philanthropies for 24 countries in Europe and Eurasia | Author of the book about fascist radio propaganda | Writing via Thrive Global, Medium and Forbes | Certified Mediator

TANJA TATOMIROVIĆ

Tanja Tatomirovic, communicologist, Microsoft Communications Director for the cluster of 24 countries in Europe and Eurasia.
She has been handling public relations for almost two decades, with experience gained in media, education, petrochemical and oil and gas industry, telecommunications, as well as the IT sector.
She led crisis communication, which was awarded in 2010, and in the same year, was selected as one of the 50 most influential persons of the digital television and broadband industry in Europe.
In 2015, she managed the privatization of “Pancevac,” the oldest weekly newspaper in the Balkans, which is still being published. She wrote an educational book about radio propaganda during fascist Italy.

In her spare time, she writes for the Thrive Global portal, and she was engaged as a member of the Communications Council of the global Forbes.

She obtained her M.Sci. at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, completed doctoral studies at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and specialized Social Innovations at the University of Washington, USA.
Tanja lives between Serbia and Germany.

Nebojša Bejlotomić
Chief Executive Officer at SAGA

NEBOJŠA BEJLOTOMIĆ

Nebojsa Bjelotomic was born in 1977 in Belgrade. The first three years of high school he had spent in Fifth Belgrade Gymnasium, while the fourth grade he finished in America. There he received a scholarship for Boston University where he graduated in biomedical engineering, with a thesis on improving the functionality of DNA chips.
He got his first job at the company in the biotech industry, Phylos, where he worked on the development of protein chips. After a few years he returned to Serbia where he started working in IBM and then in Fujitsu Siemens Computers. He has recognized that the notebook would be the next big thing in selling PCs, which gave FSC a long-term leadership position in our market in that segment. Thanks to that, Nebojša became the first Country Manager, and after that, Fujitsu Regional Manager for the Balkans.
During this period, he also has received a master's degree at the University of Belgrade, on the subject of international management and marketing. Prior to his arrival in Saga, he worked as the CEO of Printec, which is developing a solution for automating financial transactions.
Adam Kovač
Solution Specialist at 3Lateral

ADAM KOVAČ

From selling innovative companies to working at one - Adam is a Solutions Specialist at 3Lateral, guiding clients in adoption of novel technologies. 3Lateral develops innovative technologies that enable digitization of human appearance and motion at an unprecedented level of realism.

Previously, Adam was a Manager at EY, making Tech mergers and acquisitions happen on a regional level.
He managed the sale of 3Lateral to Epic Games, and supported the $3bn sale of United Group to BC Partners.

He is actively involved within the startup community: coaching founders, creating workshops, supporting applications for the Innovation fund, connecting to Venture Capital funds etc.. Adam supported Digital Serbia Initiative in launching the first Startup Scanner in 2019.

Before joining 3Lateral, he managed DokTok, a new platform for free video consultations with doctors and mental health workers. It was awarded by the Ministry of Innovation for their support during COVID-19 pandemic.

Stefan Lazarević
GM NCR Serbia and EMEA External Affairs Director

STEFAN LAZAREVIĆ

Stefan Lazarevic is General Manager, NCR Serbia & EMEA External Affairs Director, responsible for managing one of the NCR biggest location in the world. NCR started its business in Serbia back in 2011 with 300 employees and today Stefan manages NCR Serbia that employs around 4,000 people.
As EMEA External Affairs Director, Stefan manages public policy initiatives, emerging markets efforts and provides support to different market access projects in EMEA region. He closely monitors global tech legislations and advises NCR Corporation on relevant policy issues and works with internal stakeholders to define public policy positions.
Before joining NCR in 2014, Stefan had served on few government positions, with the last one being State Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications. As State Secretary he was responsible for the development of the ICT and postal services sectors on the state level, with focus on broadband, e-government and e-commerce development. While holding this position, he also held a position of President of the Negotiation Group for Chapter 10: Information Society and Media Additionally as part of Serbia’s accession negotiation with the European Union.
From 2009-2011 he was a member of two European Commission’s program committees: Program Committee of the European Commission for the research and technology development in ICT (then: FP7 program; now: Horizon 2020) and Program Committee of the European Commission for the support of the implementation of laws and strategies in the area of ICT.
Ivan Ostojić
Partner at McKinsey & Company

IVAN OSTOJIĆ

Ivan is a Partner with McKinsey and Company. He is passionate about technology driven innovation in lifescience and other high tech industries. Following his passion Ivan holds several leadership roles within McKinsey. He is an action officer for McKinsey Global Technology council which gathers eminent global technologists, CEOs and CTOs of tech companies, to discuss & collaborate on the future of technology. Ivan is the leader of McKinsey's EMEA Innovation practice & he is in the leadership of McKinsey’s business building practice (Leap) where he leads Global practice in lifescience industry. Ivan advises business leaders across a variety of industry sectors, with specific focus on tech driven industries such as Pharmaceutical, biotech, life sciences, chemical, energy, advanced industries. His areas of expertise include business model and technology driven innovation transformations (e.g. helping companies scale advanced analytics/AI, digital and other technologies) throughout the value chain from research to early commercialization. Ivan holds dual degree, Masters and PhD in Molecular biology from Friedrich Miescher institute / University of Basel and additional Masters of science in Management, Technology and Economics from ETH in Zurich (Swiss Federal institute of technology). Ivan completed his undergraduate studies in Molecular biology at University of Belgrade as the best student in his generation at faculty of Biology.
Mirko Stojković
Founder of Interactive Arts Laboratory at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts

MIRKO STOJKOVIĆ

Mirko Stojković, DA (b.1971) is a full time professor, head of Dramaturgy Department and founder of Interactive Arts Laboratory at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia), visiting professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences (Novi Sad, Serbia) and Academy of Arts (Novi Sad, Serbia).

For the past twenty-five years he has worked extensively as a writer, screenwriter, director, dramatist, copywriter and game designer.

Mirko Stojkovic is a member of SRN (Screenwriting Research Network), IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) and Serbian Screenwriter Association.

SELECTED WORK:

2018: VR experience "Stroganj", co-author (Interactive Arts Lab FDU / Scenlab FTN), winner of The First international Hyper-reality hackathon organized by Bristol VR Lab and British Council at Startit
2018: Educational ten-part TV series "In the Net", SHARE Foundation, Serbia (writer and director)
2013: Video game “Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova“, o2d/Big Fish Games, USA (writer)
2010: Pervasive game „Serb.I.Am.“, London Internation Festival of Theatre, National Theatre, London, UK (co-designer)
2007: TV Avala, Serbia (creative director and head of the documentary programme department)
2000: Democratic Opposition of Serbia political campaign (copywriter)
1998: Play „М70“, National Theatre Toša Jovanović, Zrenjanin, Serbia (writer)

JAN STEDUL
Digital relationships @ Mindsmiths

JAN STEDUL

Jan's journey into the tech world has been largely motivated by his lifelong obsession of figuring out what makes people tick. Spending most of his professional career in the media business he studied the impact of content, visual and auditory signals on viewers and the social phenomena that comes along with it. Questions like: “Why and how do people fall in love with film characters?”, “Why do shows like Big Brother make our heads turn?”, “How can we predict the next big hit amongst the public?”
Within Mindsmiths Jan and his team are working to employ humanistic sciences such as psychology and sociology to develop AI systems that have the ability to develop and maintain relationships with people in order to better their lives.
Jan is an active advocate for the popularization of the field of AI as one that is very inclusive and isn’t restricted to engineers and data scientists but desperately needs the involvement of humanistic experts and non-engineering talent.
Staša Stanković
Phd in Genomic Medicine, University of Cambridge Founder of Innovation Forum Serbia

STAŠA STANKOVIĆ

Staša Stanković is a PhD student in Genomic Medicine at the University of Cambridge. Her
research is focused on understanding the biological mechanisms that give insights into the
relevance of reproductive ageing for susceptibility of non-cancer and cancer ageing traits and
disease outcomes, using human genetics approaches in large-scale population studies,
including UK Biobank, 23andMe and Genomics England.
Staša is a founder of Innovation Forum Serbia with the aim to foster the development of
Serbian healthcare start-up ecosystem by bridging the gap between academia, industry, policy
makers and investors. She initiated the first ever healthcare start-up accelerator in Serbia. In
collaboration with local scientific and industrial institutions, Staša approaches the most
innovative technologies first hand, imagining their potential usage and helping them grow by
providing access to mentorship, funding and international exposure. Being recognised as a
promising young scientist that fosters the implementation of the cutting-edge healthcare
practice into Serbian ecosystem she was nominated as one of the young female leaders with
remarkable impact on Serbian healthcare for 2019. Staša was selected as the “Leader of
Tomorrow 2020” by the Global Biotechnology Revolution and one of 35 most distinguished
young scientists and leaders in Europe by pharmaceutical company Novartis. Staša also
received a prestigious award by McKinsey&Company “Next Generation Women Leader” for 2020.
Darija-Medić
Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder

DARIJA MEDIĆ

Darija Medić is a creator and educator, who through the poetics of language, technology and art explores the field of habituation, building collective processes and space in coexistence with modern technological practices. She works as a coordinator of digital arts projects in the international organization DiploFoundation, whose activity is based on capacity development in the field of digital policies. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Intermedia Arts, Writing and Performance and is working as a researcher in the Laboratory of Media Archeology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA. She also collaborates as a researcher in the production of projects of the Center for New Media kuda.org.
Igor Simić
CEO Demagog studio

IGOR SIMIĆ

Igor Simic graduated from Columbia University, New York, with a BA in Philosophy and a BA in Film Studies. With works shown at film festivals, museums, and galleries, Igor is represented by Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt. Currently, his work Spine 2.0 is on display at Museum Ulm, Germany, as part of the exhibition "Transhuman: From Prosthetic to Cyborg." Igor is the CEO of the gaming and animation company Demagog Studio, which gained international recognition with the Apple-featured project "Golf Club: Wasteland" and the soundtrack "Radio Nostalgia from Mars."

https://demagogstudio.com

Zorana Milidrag
President of e-commerce association of Serbia

ZORANA MILIDRAG

Serhat Tetikol
PhD, Product Director of Graph at Seven Bridges

SERHAT TETIKOL

Serhat is the product director of the graph technologies, i.e. GRAF, at Seven Bridges, a pioneering bioinformatics technology and service company. In addition to setting the strategy for this disruptive technology, Serhat also leads a team of scientists and engineers working on graph-based genomics solutions that capture the genetic diversity of humans. Under his leadership, the GRAF team at Seven Bridges develops cutting-edge bioinformatics solutions that empower population genomics, especially for under-represented populations, and personalized medicine. Serhat holds a PhD degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and worked in the field of plasmonics before transitioning to bioinformatics.
Dorijan Kolundžija
Gallery 12 creative director

DORIJAN KOLUNDŽIJA

Larisa Makarova
Senior Director, Visa’s Chief Risk Officer in CISSEE region

LARISA MAKAROVA

Larisa Makarova leads the Risk Services function in CIS and South East Europe and is based in Kiev. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing Region Risk Plans, establishing and managing relations with clients, government, regulatory bodies and industry stakeholders within the respective markets, as well as providing guidance to Visa clients experiencing high levels of fraud and conducting fraud forums, educational risk sessions for clients and law enforcement. Since 2004, Larisa participates as a speaker in different international conferences and forums, covering the topics of risk management and payment security.
Preceding present position in Visa, Larisa worked as Data Security and Fraud Control Manager. Prior to joining Visa, Larisa served as Vice-Head of Risk Management in Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association “EMA”. Before that, she held different positions in largest Ukrainian bank and Processing Centre.
Larisa Makarova graduated from Banking and Finances Department at Institute of Business and Finances as an economist-financier. She also has a University degree in Romanic-Germanic Philology.
Biljana Milićević
Customs Supervisor in DHL Express Serbia

BILJANA MILIĆEVIĆ

Biljana is Customs Supervisor in DHL Express Serbia. With her great expertise, knowledge and experience, she is also acting as a consultant related with the customs law and regulations, foreign trade, operations and logistics.

She is Certified International Specialist responsible for the Customs team and the employees working on the roles of Customs Declarant and Customs Contact Group Clerk.

Driving culture of change within her team with 'can do' and 'passion' attitude, is something that is deeply inside Biljana`s personal brand.