EUROPSKI FORUM – BUDUĆNOST ZA SVEUČILIŠTA

Peter Lürssen is a naval architect, Managing Director, and CEO at Lürssen Werft GmbH & Co.KG, a well-known company specializing in naval ships and special vessels and one of the leading builders of custom yachts. He studied shipbuilding and industrial engineering in Germany and business administration in the United States. Before joining the family business in 1987, he gathered considerable professional experience working in the commercial shipbuilding industry, including one year spent as a construction inspector at different Japanese shipyards.

Andreas Treichl is an Austrian bank manager who became the Chairman of the Board of Erste Bank in 1997, and since the end of 2012, he has been serving as the Chairman of the Board of ERSTE Stiftung, the largest shareholder of Erste Group. He is also a Board member of the International Monetary Conference (IMC), the Institute of International Finance (IIF), and the Trilateral Commission European Region.

Katharina Unger is the founder and CEO of Livin Studio and Livin Farms, both Vienna-based companies leading in the field of edible insects and novel food innovations. She is a pioneer in the field of insect farming. For more than 10 years, she has worked on innovative technologies for alternative food and feed production in Europe, the US, Africa, and Asia. Often described as a thought leader in the space of design for sustainability, food, and agricultural innovation, she has given multiple lectures at universities and public events worldwide.

Roberto Kutić Co-founder and COO, Infobip. As Chief Operating Officer, Roberto manages Infobip’s operations to ensure that the company’s strategic vision is reflected through every department’s activity. He has been instrumental in Infobip’s growth and success, applying his background in business management and technology to scaling the platform globally. With co-founders CEO Silvio Kutić and CTO Izabel Jelenić, he helped bootstrap the company from no turnover to $1bn in just 14 years. And that too with no external investment.

Ana Odak is a Board member at Gitone Kvarner, where she holds the position of director for strategic investments and incentives. She is also the President of the Maritime Innovation Cluster. She studied at the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb and received professional training at Harvard University and the London School of Public Relations. During her career, she held various positions at the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds.

Ivo Usmiani graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the University of Zagreb, where he further specialized in pharmaceutical technology (production of drugs). He is the founder of the largest Croatian pharmaceutical company, Jadran-galenski Laboratory, and has been the company’s director since its founding in 1991 and President of the Board of Directors since 2015. As the President of the Board, he deals with the company’s strategy, vision, and supervision.

Christoph Schöfböck became a member of the Board of Erste Bank in 2011, and he is the current President of the Management Board of Erste Bank, Croatia, while also performing various functions within the supervisory boards of Erste Group members in Croatia. During his career, he held senior management positions at Bank Austria Creditanstalt Russia and was the chief representative of Creditanstalt in Moscow. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Vienna, completed numerous managerial training programs in Switzerland, Great Britain, and the USA, and held various management positions in Croatia.

Lado Kranjčević is a full professor at the Department of Fluid Mechanics and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Rijeka, and as of October 2022, he has been acting as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering in Rijeka. He is also the Head of the Center for Advanced Computing and Modeling of the University of Rijeka, and his research interests include fluid mechanics, numerical models in environmental engineering, supercomputer resources, parallel computing, climate change, and supercomputer technology.

Mladen Pejković is a Senior Executive Director for transformation and ICT at Atlantic Group and the Chairman of the University of Rijeka Council. Before joining Atlantic, he held various executive positions in 4 countries and built his expertise through deep experience in the technology industry, from the start-up phase of companies to tech giants. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the Croatian Ski Federation, and since 2021, he is the Vice-President for Technology Development at the National Council for Science, HE, and Technological Development.

Saša Drezgić is a full professor at the Department of Finance and Banking and head of the postgraduate specialist study of management in the public sector at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Rijeka. His research interests include macroeconomics, fiscal policy, public finance, local government finance, and econometrics. He is the Head of the Center for Support to Smart and Sustainable Cities of the University of Rijeka, and as of October 2022, he has been acting as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business in Rijeka.

Teuta Duletić is a shipbuilding engineer and executive director at Lürssen Design Center Kvarner, the Rijeka branch of the well-known Lürssen group. She graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Rijeka and received professional training at University College London and Instituto Superior Técnico in Portugal. She is interested in natural sciences and innovation, and she built her career working in the American Metal Shark and Brodosplit, where she worked as a product manager for a foreign off-shore company.

Stephen Taylor was recently appointed as Strategic Coordinator by the Joint Working Group of the North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley, the first transnational hydrogen valley initiative in Europe. Prior to taking on this challenge he was Director of Research and Innovation at Area Science Park, the largest and longest established Science and Technology Park in Italy. He has over thirty years’ experience gained in Europe and in Silicon Valley in the USA and in both the public and private sectors, driving innovation through the strategic valorisation of research results and technology commercialization.

Karl Pölzlbauer is a executive director of ERMAFA ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES who develop and provide novel environmental solutions in various fields and cooperate with industry and business. Karl has been dealing with topics such as recycling, sustainable circular economy and resource-saving disposal for 25 years now, as these in particular still offer enormous potential worldwide.

Boris Golob is the director of the Science and Technology Park of the University of Rijeka, STEP-Ri. He is a business consultant and lecturer, expert in innovating products, services and business models as well as business strategies. He graduated in mechanical engineering at the Technical Faculty in Rijeka and completed a series of professional educations abroad.

Since the beginning of 2019, Hedvig Morvai has been responsible for programme development and civil society initiatives in the fields of policy development, democracy, human rights, journalism, education and socio-economic research as well as European affairs at ERSTE Foundation. She developed her multi-disciplinary approach to leadership in regional co-operation and European integration in civic activism, philanthropy and regional politics. Previously, Hedvig was Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans and Director of the Citizens ’Pact for Europe-Southeastern Europe.

Vesna Pusić is a Croatian sociologist and politician who served as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (2011. – 2016.). Throughout her political career, in both legislative and executive branches, Ms. Pusić was widely recognised as a leader advocating freedom, human rights, human dignity and democratic political culture based on dialogue and tolerance. Widely experienced in politics, academia and social activism, with a life-long commitment to strengthening peace and democracy, and promoting and defending human rights and human dignity, Vesna Pusić has been able to move borders in achieving these goals throughout her career.

Velibor Mačkić is a special Adviser to the President of the Republic for the Economy, since 2020, is also the President of the Economic Council of the President of the Republic of Croatia. He is Sssociate professor at the Faculty of Economics & Business at the University of Zagreb and his main research interests are in these fields: (new) political economy, electoral cycles, analysis of price and non-price competitiveness of contemporary economies, and budget transparency. Mr. Mačkić is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the Centre for Democracy and Law Miko Tripalo.

Senada Šelo Šabić is a Senior Scientific Associate at the Institute for Development and International Relations (Department for International Economic and Political Relations). Her research interests include Croatian foreign policy, Southeast Europe, EU politics, and migration. Senada holds Ph.D. in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence and has earned two Masters degrees – in international relations from the University of Zagreb and in peace studies from the University of Notre Dame, USA.

Željko Ivanković is Principal Lecturer in Finance in School of Business at the Prague City University. With a PhD in political philosophy from the Australian National University, his research interests have evolved from the theory of property, institutional economics and political economy to the history of finance and digital money. Mr. Ivanković is editor at the Ideje.hr and a permanent Fellow at Center for Advanced Studies – South East Europe, University of Rijeka.

Luka Glušac is Assistant Director and Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. Before joining the academia, he was a Senior Adviser at the National Human Rights Institution of Serbia, a Fellow at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and a Programme Manager at the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF). His training is in political science (PhD) and security studies (MA, BA). He is primarily interested in human rights institutions, accountability mechanisms and good governance, as well as democratic security sector governance. As an international expert, he has supported the strengthening of parliaments and independent oversight bodies (ombuds institutions, anti-corruption agencies, and similar) in various countries (e.g. Cameroon, Kenya, Niger, Ukraine, Georgia, Indonesia, the Maldives).

Vedran Džihić is currently a Senior Researcher at OIIP – the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Co-Director of the Center for Advanced Studies, South East Europe and Assistant Professor at the Institute for Political Sciences, University of Vienna. Vedran Dzihic is a member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group, an advisory board member of the European Forum Alpbach as well as a member of the managing board of the community TV-station in Vienna, OKTO. His research interests are related primarily to democracy and transition processes as well as de-democratisation, illiberalism and authoritarianism, new nationalism, European integration, and civil society.