SPEAKERS

Vedran Antoljak, born in 1971, has international experience in development and implementation of private and public sector projects. In the period of more than 20 years, Vedran designed, developed and participated in the different projects of international institutions, regional governments, global and regional corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises. During her career, Vedran successfully developed and sold his own consulting firm in the ICT sector in Austria; he was a senior consultant to one of globally leading strategic consulting company. For four years he was Head of International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Croatia; and for five years he worked as private sector specialist for the World Bank. Since 2007, he is co-founder and main partner of Sense Consulting.

Mr. Antoljak has a wide range of skills and management consulting experience he gathered in working with the prosperous Startups; by leading diverse projects for private corporations; and by designing and implementing regulatory reforms in 18 countries. Vedran's business focus is the area of Design Thinking, innovation management, development of innovative business models and tools, organizational restructuring, strategy and business planning, business process automation and digital business transformation.

Vedran Antoljak educated in Austria, Slovenia, and the USA. He earned college degree at Graduate School of Economics; graduated business administration of Karl-Franzens University in Graz, and is continuously improving his skills executive skills (e.g. Harvard, IMD). Vedran is the author of a series of analyzes and studies, and many professional articles; he is lecturer at largest privately owned private university in Cortai (VERN); he is Vice President of Croatia's Association of Business Advisers, and co-founder of the Croatian Foresight Institute. Vedran is married and father of two children.

Since January 1998 Zoran Anusic has been working as Senior Economist at the World Bank on pension reforms in Croatia, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Montenegro, Ukraine, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other countries. In 1998 and 1999 Zoran Anusic was seconded to the Government of Croatia as a coordinator of the Committee for Pension Reform of the Government of Croatia. In 2001 and 2002 he served as Advisor to the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister for pension reform implementation. Prior to engagement in the World Bank, Zoran Anusic held posts of a Research Fellow and Research Assistant at Institute of Economics Zagreb (1986-1995), Assistant Minister of Finance for Macroeconomic Analysis and Forecasts (1995-1997), Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister (1997), and Member of the Board of InvestmentBank Austria in Croatia.

During his career he published one book, some 30 journal articles and participated in several scientific projects of macroeconomic orientation and econometric modeling. Zoran Anusic graduated from the University of Zagreb, and earned his Masters’ degree from the Florida State University.

Uto Baader (born 1944) was the founder and Chairman of Baader Bank AG’s Executive Board until July 2015 and head of the organization for a total of 32 years. In 1983 Uto Baader became an authorised stockbroker on the Bavarian Stock Exchange in Munich, where he began trading in international equities. Before starting his career as a stockbroker, he was head of the International Equities Trading section at Bayerische Landesbank in Munich, where he worked for 13 years. Four years later, following his initial success in Munich, he was also authorised to trade on the Baden-Württemberg Stock Exchange in Stuttgart. Uto Baader broadened the scope of his business activities in 1993, working on the flotation of a software firm. This later led to the creation of a separate division specialising in support for corporate actions such as IPOs, capital increases and takeover bids. His work as a broker gained a broader institutional footing in 1996 when Uto Baader founded Baader Wertpapier GmbH. At the same time, he acquired a majority stake in the listed company Ballmaier & Schultz Wertpapier AG in Frankfurt, joining its Executive Board. Two years later he merged the two firms, creating Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG and taking over the reins of the new company. After receiving a full banking licence from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority in July 2008, the company became Baader Bank AG, and Uto Baader became Chairman of its Executive Board.

Damir is Head of Region (SEE) and advisor for DACH region of Funderbeam, a primary and secondary market for early-stage startup investments providing easy delivery and access of growth capital. Funderbeam is creating a new world where companies are funded and traded across borders.

With a well rounded previous experience (CEO, CMO, CFO of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Leasing; Deputy Executive Director of Corporate Division in Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank; Deputy Executive Director of Investment Banking in Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank; Head of Corporate Finance in Erste Securities Zagreb; Key Account Relationship Manager in Corporate of HVB Bank Croatia (Bank Austria)), Damir has a good overview of capital markets and financial services.

In his last position he managed to transform a shell leasing company to a fully functional organisation while at the same time decreasing costs and decreasing NPL ratio from 47% to less than 10%. As Deputy Executive Director Corporate Division he was responsible for management, steering, budgeting, planning, HR and execution of the relationship between companies in Croatia and Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d. In his previous position as Deputy Executive Director Investment Banking Division he was responsible for the whole investment banking business of Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank in Croatia, including brokerage, custody, corporate finance and investment funds.

As Head of Corporate Finance in Erste Securities Zagreb Ltd he was responsible for M&A business which includes advisory services in mergers, acquisitions and sale of companies; advisory services in privatizations; organization and execution of takeovers and valuation of companies. In his first job at HVB Bank he was responsible for key clients of the bank as a single point of contact. The relationship comprised the whole cycle of deal origination, company and project analysis (qualitative and quantitative), screening, structuring, negotiation, execution and monitoring. He was also responsible for cross selling, financial consultancy, business and financial review of his clients. His responsibility included syndications, club deals and acquisition financing for the leading Croatian companies.

Martin leads RBI’s Desk Strategy which provides Emerging European strategy to the group’s institutional clients as well as supporting the development of the group’s capital markets operations.

Before joining RBI, Martin founded and co-managed Ithuba Capital’s macro hedge fund, focusing on East and West European sovereign credit and local currency markets (winner of the Best Performing Macro-Discretionary Fund of the year in the 2012 UCITS Hedge Awards). Prior to this, he headed UniCredit’s Emerging Market Economic Research and Strategy Group, which regularly topped strategy rankings under his leadership. He graduated from the London School of Economics in 1996 and has been active in Emerging European markets since then.

Kristijan Buk was born in 1972 in Rijeka. After graduating from the Faculty of Economics, he started his professional career at Croatia Line d.d. Rijeka. He then transferred to the position of Director of Finance at ADRIA osiguranje d.d. Pula, where he acquired the necessary knowledge required for conducting the insurance company’s various business operations.

After the takeover of ADRIA osiguranje d.d. by Grawe Hrvatska d.d., he was named Head of the Department of Financial and General Affairs in 2001 and in late 2004 he moved to the position of Head of the Controlling Department and also became the company’s procurator.

In 2005 he transferred to Allianz Zagreb d.d. to the position of Director of the Department of Controlling and Asset Management and in 2007 he was appointed member of the Board of Finance. In 2008 he was named Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Allianz ZB d.o.o. Voluntary Pension Fund Management Company and held that position until 2015.

In 2011 he was appointed Head of the Working Group for Solvency and Capital Adequacy Solvency II, which is a part of the Croatian Insurance Bureau. In 2012, at the behest of the Ministry of Finance, he participated in drafting the Insurance Act Proposal.

In April 2017 he was appointed President of the Management Board of the AZ d.o.o. company for managing obligatory pension fund.

Named by Thomson Reuters as the UK’s top social influencer in risk, compliance and regtech in 2017, David Doughty (@DavidDoughty) is a Corporate Governance expert and business mentor who works with company directors to assist them in building their boards and ensuring they are as effective as they possibly can be. David discusses a range of topics online, from corporate governance to compliance and risk management.

David is Chief Executive of Excellencia, providing Board effectiveness and Leadership development services to organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He is a director of Executive Transitions Network, an organisation that supports those who are changing career or are embarking on or already have a portfolio career and he also chairs the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare which promotes triple-bottom-line sustainability in healthcare.

David is the Governance Consultant for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association and is a director of Talent4Boards Inc. He writes about Corporate Governance for Board Agenda magazine and the Corporate Governance Institute and has contributed to a number of publications and web-sites.

Previously he chaired the Thames Valley Health Innovation and Education Cluster (TV HIEC), a publicly funded partnership authorised by the Department of Health to improve innovation and education within the NHS across the Thames Valley and was Chief Executive of the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership (OEP) – a partnership between private, public and voluntary sectors, which was responsible for strategic economic development across Oxfordshire and ensuring that the county was a competitive sub-region, both nationally and internationally.

David is an entrepreneurial sales and marketing specialist with strong analytical and commercial skills. He has extensive executive and non-executive experience in small and medium enterprises in both the private and public sectors and is also a consultant at Board level to multi-national organisations.

A physicist and engineer by training, David has started and developed a number of businesses latterly in the IT sector. He was one of the first people in the country to become a Chartered Director and holds a Masters in Company Direction from Leeds Business School.

Marko Emer, born in 1976 in Zagreb, Croatia. An entrepreneur specialized in the development of innovative and specific IT business solutions that significantly improve business processes.
Started his career with the development of biometrics time and attendance software, which is apart from the Croatian market also present internationally. Business Cooperation with MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka, Civintec, China, National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria, etc.

Launches the e-invoicing project, Service "My-eInvoice" in 2013. It currently holds almost 98% of the e-invoicing market in Croatia, which is achieved through progressive sales and active education. My-eInvoice service is a market leader in Croatia with plans for the EU expansion.

Hrvoje Galičić, B.Sc., was born on May 22, 1980 in Osijek. He obtained his respective undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate degrees in Financial Management at the University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics. Following a brief stint working in the Entrepreneurial Center of the City of Belišće, he has been employed in the Croatian Bank of Reconstruction and Development since 2005, working as Head of the regional office for Slavonija and Baranja, Assistant Director of the Credit Sector, Director of the Credit Sector and at the moment Advisor of the Management Board. In addition to banking and finance management, his additional fields of interest include SME related topics as well as EU Funds and financial instruments.

He graduated from the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb and obtained a PhD at FU Hagen University, Fr. Germany in 2005. He received the Friends of FU Hagen and Sparkasse Hagen Award for the Best PhD in Mathematics in 2005, and the dissertation was awarded the sum of cum laude predicate.

As a teaching assistant, he has worked at University of Zagreb, FU Hagen University and was a post doc at RWTH Aachen University.
Since October 2005 he has been employed as an assistant professor and since 2012 as an associate professor at the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. He was the Dean of Studies of the PMF-MO in academic years 2008/09 and 2009/10.

His scientific interests are in the applied and industrial mathematics with contributions in scientific computing, numerical analysis and operator theory. He has had eight invited section lectures at International conferences and more than thirty invited lectures at institutions. He also participated in numerous conferences with contributed lectures.

He was a principal investigator of several research grants with industry and a principal investigator of two bilateral cooperation projects with the USA. The research project (led jointly with B. Basrak) in cooperation with Mireo d.d. resulted in I. Ugrina's doctoral thesis. He was the organizer of five international conferences (two as chairman of the organizing committee), and five mini-symposia within international conferences.

He is the editor in chief of the Croatian electronic math journal math.e, which is a journal for the popularization of science, and a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Glasnik matematički.

Vincent Ingham is Director, Regulatory Policy at EFAMA, the European Fund and Asset Management Association and responsible for coordinating the association’s work on EU and international legislative and regulatory developments of relevance for European asset management companies and investment funds. He joined EFAMA in 2009.

Prior to that, Vincent Ingham worked 7 years for a Belgo-Dutch asset management company (Fortis Investments) in the Fund Structuring department. He was in charge there of the creation, approval and legal maintenance of a wide range of Belgium domiciled investment funds. Between 1996 and 2001, he worked as lawyer for two law firms based in Brussels where he specialized in financial law and company law. He holds a master degree in Law from the University of Louvain-La-Neuve (U.C.L.), Belgium.

Darije Vladimir Josić graduated management from Schiller International University (USA, Heidelberg, Madrid). He started his career in consulting industry working for renowed companies such as ICF Consulting and Deloitte & Touche, followed by Development Alternatives Inc. where he performed the function of a Business Development Manager. In Jadran Invest, company for management of investment funds, Mr. Josić's responsibilities as President of the Board were business and financial planning and supervision of overall business operations including management, finances and legal affairs. Before his arrival to Sense ESCO, Mr. Josić was in charge of all business activities of Croatian radio-television (national TV and radio broadcaster), thus managing the annual budget of 200 million euros, where his responsibilities, amongst others, included finances, accounting, planning, analysis, and investments.

Today, as President of the Board in Sense ESCO, he is in charge of designing company's development strategy and developing and contracting financial models for energy efficiency projects and energy production from renewables. Since the Company was established, Mr. Josić was responsible for raising initial equity (seed capital) and additional equity through negotiations with foreign investors, as well as issuing of bonds for local and foreign investors.

Curriculum vitae

PensionsEurope is the leading voice for workplace pensions in Europe representing 24 European national pension fund associations covering pensions of more than 100 million Europeans and more than € 4 trillion of assets. Matti is also the Chair of Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority EIOPA. Prior to joining PensionsEurope in 2011 Matti worked for 11 years for The Finnish Pension Alliance. Matti has a LLM and an Executive MBA in Insurance and Financial services.

Adam Lessing is Head of Central and Eastern Europe for Fidelity International. Fidelity International is one of the leading global asset managers with US$ 330 bn. under management and administration for European and Asian clients.

Previous to joining Fidelity Adam Lessing was the London-based Head of European Business Development for Aviva Investors, the EUR 400 bn. asset manager of the British Aviva insurance group. Before then Adam Lessing held positions with AXA Investment Managers as Head of Distribution Northern Europe, with Goldman Sachs Asset Management as Executive Director, as member of the Board of ÖIG (now Pioneer Austria) as well as other companies.

Adam Lessing holds a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of California (Berkeley). He is a member of the board of the Association of Foreign Investment Funds in Austria (VAIÖ), a former member of the board of the Association of Austrian Investment Funds (VÖIG) as well as past deputy chairman of the European Association of Funds and Asset Managers (EFAMA).

Adam Lessing has published papers on arbitration and on investment funds in various professional journals

Nataša Marjanović was born on December 7, 1978 in Belgrade. She graduated at the Faculty of Economy at the University of Belgrade. Started her career in 2001 in the Foreign Currency Reserve Management Unit of the National Bank of Serbia, where she quickly became the youngest main dealer/portfolio manager in the history of NBS. She was responsible for managing the securities portfolio, which is comprised of the majority of the securities reserve of the National Bank of Serbia.

In August 2005, she became a manager of the Division for Liquidity Assets of Piraeus Bank j.s.c. Belgrade, where she worked on the formation and the organization of the Division for Liquidity Assets Management. She came to Generali in September 2006, as the first portfolio manger of a voluntary pension fund in Serbia.

In the period of 2007-2016, she has been heading the Generali Voluntary Pension Funds Management Company as the chairwoman of the Board of Directors and the CEO of the Company. Since 2011, she had been responsible for managing funds/the capital of all companies within Generali Osiguranje Srbija (Osiguranje, Reosiguranje, and Generali Osiguranje Montenegro). Since 2012 she had been a member of the Executive Committee of Generali Osiguranje Srbija, and as of 2016, she is a member of the Executive Board of Generali Osiguranje, in charge of managing financial transaction assets. She coordinates the work, and is responsible for the Joint stock company for managing the voluntary pension fund GENERALI, Belgrade.

She is the President of the Voluntary Pension Funds Group.

Since 2005, she’s been a holder of the world’s most recognized licence in the area of investment decision-making, Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) of the American CFA Institute, as well as the first portfolio manager licence issued by the Securities Commission.
Parallel with her regular activities, she was an assistant at the Faculty of Economy and a lecturer at specialized courses for CFA exam preparation.

Graduated in Finance from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Zagreb and gained the CFA and CIPM degree (CFA Institute, USA), as well as DESS ‘International Management – Finance’ at Louis Pasteur University at Strasbourg, France (postgraduate study in international finance and financial markets, master degree thesis in foreign exchange risk management). He also holds an investment advisor license (Croatian SEC) and Pension fund’s management license.

Pierre started his career in 1998 at Croatian National Bank as USD fixed income portfolio manager and continued at Zagrebacka banka (UniCredit Group) as a Head of the Asset Management Department. In 2002 he became a President of the Management Board of ZB Invest mutual funds management company (Zagrebacka banka Group, UniCredit Group). In 2011 Pierre was appointed President of the Board of the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency and also represents Croatia in ESMA (European Securities and markets Authority), EIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) and ESRB (European Systemic Risk Board).

He was also President of the Croatian Association of Mutual Funds Management Companies, Vice-president of the Croatian Association of Mutual Funds Management Companies and a member of the Working Group for the Chapter Financial services within the negotiations process for the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union as well as a member of various working groups related to the adoption of capital markets and investment fund regulation in line with EU Directives.

Mark Mobius, Ph.D., executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, has spent more than 40 years working in emerging markets all over the world. He joined Franklin Templeton in 1987 as president of the Templeton Emerging Markets Fund, Inc. He is the author of the following books: Trading with China, The Investor's Guide to Emerging Markets, Mobius on Emerging Markets, Passport to Profits, Equities - An Introduction to the Core Concepts, Mutual Funds - An Introduction to the Core Concept, Foreign Exchange - An Introduction to the Core Concepts, Bonds - An Introduction to the Core Concepts, Mark Mobius - An Illustrated Biography and The Little Book of Emerging Markets.

Dr. Mobius was named by Asiamoney magazine in 2006 as one of their "Top 100 Most Powerful and Influential People." Asiamoney said, he "...boasts one of the highest profiles of any investor in the region and is regarded by many in the financial industry as one of the most successful emerging markets investors over the last 20 years.

Despite tough times during the financial crisis nine years ago, he still commands a strong following in the investment world and is influencing the direction of billions of investment dollars." Other awards include: (1) "50 Most Influential People" by Bloomberg Markets Magazine in 2011, (2) "2010 Africa Investor Index Series Awards" by African Investor, (3) "Emerging Markets Equity Manager of the Year 2001" by International Money Marketing, (4) "Ten Top Money Managers of the 20th Century" in a survey by the Carson Group in 1999, (5) "Number One Global Emerging Market Fund" in the 1998 Reuters Survey, (6) "1994 First in Business Money Manager of the Year" by CNBC, (7) "Closed-End Fund Manager of the Year" in 1993 by Morningstar and, (8) "Investment Trust
Manager of the Year 1992" by Sunday Telegraph.

He is a member of the Economic Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group. Dr. Mobius earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Boston University, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in economics and political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Valentina Otmačić has been the Head of the UNICEF team in Croatia since 2014. Prior to assuming the duties of Head of the UNICEF Office for Croatia, she was active in the field of human rights education, and worked with children, youth and adults in Sisak-Moslavina County as part of the Human Rights Friendly Schools project

She began her rich international career in the promotion and protection of human rights in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1996 at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE). Ms Otmačić then joined the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Tanzania, where she coordinated field activities at the Lukole refugee camp that held more than 130,000 refugees from Burundi and Rwanda.

Ms Otmačić continued her work on the promotion and realisation of the rights of refugees in 2002 in Burundi, where she coordinated activities related to the return and reintegration of refugees from that country. She worked on projects for children and youth in Lebanon from 2004 to 2007. It was during this period that she wrote the handbook Conflict as a Challenge: Enhancing Children’s Capacities of Constructive Conflict Transformation. Today the handbook is used for teacher training in Lebanese schools.

She gained additional experience of running complex projects whilst in Columbia where from 2008 to 2009 she managed the EU-funded project Regional Network for Development and Social Cohesion – Instruments and Activities for Social Integration of Communities affected by Violence in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

After Master degrees in Peace, Conflict Studies and Human rights at the Universities of Barcelona and Granada, Ms Otmačić is currently preparing her Ph.D. in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb and is fluent in English.

Gerhard joined Baader Bank in 2011 after Baader Bank decided to ramp up its investment banking and institutional client business significantly. Prior to that role, he was in charge of the Equity Strategy team at HVB/UniCredit for 13 years. His focus is on top down drivers for global and European equity markets, valuation & market timing models, cross asset class interconnections and Alpha strategies. In this context, he is responsible for selecting the top stock picks from Germany, Austria and Switzerland which is the regional core focus of Baader Bank’s Equity Research team.

On top, he regularly makes recommendations how to use ETFs in order to position for his views on macro drivers and financial markets in a cross asset framework. Gerhard already specialized on financial markets, portfolio theory and quant techniques when graduating in business administration at Augsburg University. He passed the CEFA exam in 1995. His total experience in sell-side financial markets research amounts to 23 years.

Kai Steverding works as an Institutional Trader at Flow Traders B.V., a leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider specialised in Exchange Traded Products. After graduating from IUBH School of Business and Management, Kai started his career in the Structured Products division at Leonteq Securities in Zurich where he worked in Public Distribution and on the German market entry. Having pursued a path in various Electronic and Portfolio Sales Trading Roles at Nomura International and Instinet Europe in London and Frankfurt afterwards, Kai joined Flow Traders in 2016. Based in Amsterdam, Kai is responsible for the development and coverage of the institutional counterparty base in Eastern Europe.

Flow Traders is one of the largest ETF market makers in the World. More than 115 traders pride themselves with providing liquidity and highly competitive markets in more than 5000 ETFs globally, covering ETFs from all major issuers, listed on all relevant exchanges and of all asset classes.

Boris Vujčić, PhD, was born in Zagreb on 2 June 1964. He graduated in 1988 and received his doctor's degree in 1996, both from the Zagreb Faculty of Economics. He worked as assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb from 1989 to 1997, when he was appointed assistant professor. As a Fulbright fellow he attended doctoral study at the Department of Economics, Michigan State University, USA, in the period between 1994 and 1995. From December 1996 till his appointment as Deputy Governor of the CNB he worked as Director of the CNB Research Department. Boris Vujčić was appointed Deputy Governor of the Croatian National Bank on 15 July 2000 pursuant to the decision of the Croatian Parliament. On 13 July 2006 the Croatian Parliament reappointed Deputy Governor Vujčić for a second six-year term of office. Since 2005 Mr Vujčić was also a Deputy Chief Negotiator in Republic of Croatia's negotiations with the European Union.

Mr Vujčić has been an associate professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Economics since 2003. At the Zagreb Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics, he has lectured as visiting professor since 2004. Mr Vujčić's fields of expertise and teaching include monetary analysis, labour economics and international finance. He is the author of numerous scholarly papers on economic issues.

Pursuant to the decision of the Croatian Parliament, Boris Vujčić assumed office as Governor of the Croatian National Bank on 8 July 2012.

Zrinka Živković Matijević has graduated and taken her master's degree from the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb. She embarked on her career at the Ministry of European Integration, working at the Integration Strategy Department until the end of 2003. Afterwards, she was employed at the Ministry of Finance's Financial System Directorate, where she was responsible for the capital markets and analysis and for European integrations.

Živković Matijević joined Raiffeisen Consulting in 2004 in the position of economic analysts at the Economic Research Department. In 2009, she was appointed Director of Economic Research at Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d. (RBA).

The team led by Živković Matijević, as the current RBA Chief Economist, does macroeconomic and finance research for the internal purposes of Raiffeisen Group member companies and external clients.

Her professional development stems from numerous conferences and seminars in the area of the European Union economic system, transition entrepreneurship, foreign direct investments, etc. In addition, Živković Matijević has been actively involved in the implementation of several projects, and has published scientific papers in the internationally reviewed congress proceedings, as well as in magazines and books.