Ariana Vela, MBA, IPMA/A is one of the most recognized experts in European Union funds, public procurement, and strategic planning in Croatia and the wider region. With more than 20 years of experience, she has participated in the preparation and implementation of over 500 EU grant-funded projects, including some of Croatia’s largest infrastructure projects, such as the Road Connectivity with Southern Dalmatia project, better known as the Pelješac Bridge.
She is the founder and CEO of AVELANT Ltd., Director of the EU PROJEKTI Educational Institution, and a mentor in training programs focused on EU funds, public procurement, and project management. She conceived and launched Croatia’s first EU funds portal, euprojekti.info, and authored Management of ESI Funds, one of the first professional manuals on the preparation and implementation of projects financed through the European Structural and Investment Funds.
Her expertise includes resolving complex issues related to infrastructure project implementation, public procurement irregularities, strategic planning, and advising EU fund beneficiaries. In her work, she combines consulting experience, extensive knowledge of legal, institutional, and financial frameworks, and a practical approach to project implementation.
She holds an MBA in Management, is certified at the IPMA Level A standard, is a certified public procurement trainer, and serves as an external expert for both international and national institutions. At AVELANT, she is responsible for the company’s strategic management, the development of the consulting team, the introduction of innovations, and the leadership of major projects.
Drago Kos is the Dean and Secretary-General of the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna and the Chair of the OECD Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan. From 2014 to 2022, he was the Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions. In recent years, he has been a member of the International Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (IACAB) in Ukraine and a Co-Chair and Member of the Defence Corruption Monitoring Committee (NAKO) in Ukraine. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as International Commissioner and Chair of the Joint Independent Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (MEC) in Afghanistan. Between 2003 and 2011, he was President of the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). In his native Slovenia, Drago Kos was the first President of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption and Head of the Working Group for the Development of the Slovenian Guidelines on Corporate Integrity.
Dr. Sc. Ema Menđušić Škugor is a lawyer with over 10 years of experience advising on legal and compliance risk management in complex business environments. She is currently Co-Managing Partner and Head of the Regulated Industries Law Department at DTB Law Firm.
In his work, he focuses on AI, cyber security and digital regulation, with an emphasis on translating regulatory requirements into practical solutions applicable in everyday business. He regularly advises clients from various industries on compliance with the new EU regulatory framework, including the Artificial Intelligence Act and related regulations.
In addition to consulting work, he teaches at the Algebra University’s MBA program and executive programs in the areas of digital law, privacy and cyber security. It also holds in-house workshops and trainings for legal, compliance and business teams, with an emphasis on the gap between regulatory requirements and their actual application in practice.
Hana Horak, Ph.D. is a full professor with a permanent position at the Department of Business Law, Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb. She has been employed at that institution since 1992, where she teaches commercial law, international trade law, European market law and European company law, and participates in teaching postgraduate studies in the field of corporate governance and European law. She served as Head of the Department of Business Law for three terms and is the head of the postgraduate specialist study “Legal and Economic Framework of Business in the European Union”.
She is the editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal Inter EU Law East, included in the Web of Science, and a member of the editorial board of the European Company Case Law journal. He is active in national and international professional organizations and advises companies in the field of company law and corporate governance, sustainability and ESG.
Since 2026, she has served as the President of the Supervisory Board of Hanza Media.
Ivica Budimir is a civil engineer by profession. He graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Split in 1997, and has worked in road construction his entire career. He started it at the Croatian Institute of Civil Engineering (IGH), continued it in the quality control laboratory at Strabag and at Konstruktor, and then at Jadrankamen. 14 years ago, he was employed by the Croatian branch of the French construction company Colas, where he successfully managed its profit center for the southern part of the country. Among other things, he worked on the design of some sections of motorways, and for a time he taught a course on construction site organization at the Polytechnic University of Split. In February 2025, he took over the top position at Croatian Roads, that of President of the Management Board.
She is the President of the Management Board of GrECo Specialty GmbH, headquartered in Vienna, a company owned by the GrECo Group, specialized and focused exclusively on the insurance and reinsurance of specific industries, such as energy, construction, transport and logistics, aviation and financial institutions. In her position, she is responsible for business development in 21 countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe, including Croatia. Among other things, she is responsible for managing a premium of 1 billion euros, a revenue of more than 65 million euros and a team of 400 people.
Her career was anything but ordinary. A graduate in aviation engineering and professional pilot, she successfully founded and ran the first Croatian business airline, after which she held leading roles in the insurance sector. She came to GrECo from the position of president of the Marsh Management Board McLennan Croatia, where in the five years since she took the top position, she has increased revenues fourfold, developed reinsurance as part of the business and turned the portfolio around so that more than 80% of it was made up of companies from the domestic market. Iva is aShe is the recipient of the CROMA Manager of the Year Award 2023 in the small business category.
is a graduate in law, employed as the Company Secretary of Atlantic Grupa dd with basic responsibilities in the field of corporate governance. Her responsibilities include taking care of the organization of work and mutual coordination of the work of the Management Board, Supervisory Board and General Assembly of the Company, their auxiliary bodies, the compliance of the company’s internal acts, legal support of the Company’s activities in the field of capital markets and participation in the legal aspect of the preparation and implementation of Atlantic Grupa’s acquisition activities. She joined Atlantic in 2006, immediately before its IPO, and has been actively involved in the entire development of Atlantic Grupa in the field of corporate governance and the capital market to date. Before Atlantic, she spent three years in law practice working in the field of commercial and civil law, during which time she passed the bar exam. She has completed a number of professional training courses in Croatia, the United Kingdom and the United States in the field of corporate governance, capital markets and management. She is a member of the ICC Croatia Commission for Commercial Law and Practice.
Mag. iur. Ljiljana Hrastinski Jurčec is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia. Over forty years of judicial work, she has gained exceptionally rich experience in all branches of law, especially in the field of commercial, enforcement and bankruptcy law. During her work in the judiciary, she served as a judge of the Civil Department of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia and as a judge of the High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia, where she was at certain times the president of the Department responsible for commercial disputes and the Department for monitoring and supervision of case law. She graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Osijek, passed the bar exam and attended the postgraduate study program in Business Law and Transactions. She actively participated in the work of numerous judicial and professional bodies, including the Judicial Council of Commercial Courts, the Program Council of the Judicial Academy and a number of working groups of the Ministry of Justice for the development and amendment of the legislative framework. She was also the president of the Commission for taking bankruptcy and management exams and a member of the Commission for taking notary exams. It is on the list of arbitrators of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. He is a certified mediator. She is the author of several professional papers and publications in the field of enforcement and bankruptcy law, and a long-time manager of education and professional workshops for judges and judicial trainees. As an associate at Codupo doo, she is responsible for giving opinions and solving legal issues, with a special focus on the interpretation and application of regulations, the regulatory framework and legal support in complex legal and compliance issues.
Master of Laws and lawyer with more than 25 years of experience in the field of criminal law, anti-corruption, economic crime and compliance investigations in an international environment. She currently holds the position of Senior Compliance Investigator at Siemens Energy, and previously she was the director of the Forensic Department at Deloitte GmbH and worked for almost 17 years at Siemens AG as Senior Investigative Counsel for the regions of Central and Eastern Europe, India and the Middle East and as Regional Compliance Officer for the Adriatic region.
During her career, she led complex international internal investigations related to corruption, economic crime and sanctions violations, conducted risk assessments, defined corrective measures and compliance programs, and coordinated cooperation with competent authorities in various jurisdictions around the world. Before moving to the corporate sector, she held the position of Deputy Head of the Specialized Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption at the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia and Head of the Economic Crime Department. She regularly participates in international professional conferences and has extensive experience in the field of compliance investigations, anti-corruption and regulatory risk management.
Zoltán Gábor Nagy serves as head of legal in Hungary since 2013 at the LEGO Group’s Hungarian manufacturing operation. With nearly two decades of professional experience in legal and compliance roles, he has focused primarily on the manufacturing sector, including overseeing regional and local implementation of the LEGO Group’s legal and compliance programs. His focus is ensuring that a fast-growing organization adheres to legal standards and regulations, while supporting strategic investments projects, from planning to execution.
Zoltán holds several master’s degree in international business law, tax and labour law. Also, he is a PhD candidate and conducts research on the labour law aspects of occupational fraud and he is a visiting lecturer at the University of Debrecen, Hungary at the Compliance Lawyer LL.M and HR Specialization LL.M. courses, contributing to the education of future legal and HR professionals.
The LEGO Group operates its second largest factory in Hungary with a facility that currently employs close to 5000 people, reflecting the scale and importance of LEGO’s operations in the region.
Zvonimir Jukić is the Deputy President of the State Commission for the Control of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM) and the President of the Council in which he decides on appeals in public procurement, concessions and public-private partnership procedures and decides on the legality of procedures, actions, omissions and decisions as individual acts adopted in public procurement, concessions and public-private partnership procedures.
He is a lawyer from Zagreb who has passed the bar exam. In his previous career, he worked as a law trainee and in the state administration system, within the Government Office for Public Procurement, i.e. the Ministry of Economy, Directorate for the Public Procurement System. During his work in the state administration system, he participated in the drafting of legal and subordinate legislation in the field of public procurement and was a member of the working group responsible for Chapter V – Public Procurement.
He also worked at Narodne novine dd as the Head of the Legal Education and Legal Library Editorial Department and was a member of the working group for the creation and improvement of the Electronic Public Procurement Classifieds (EOJN RH).
He is a public procurement trainer and regularly participates in professional conferences and workshops on public procurement in the country and abroad.
Until recently, Vedrana Jelušić Kašić was a member of the Management Board of Privredna banka Zagreb, since the end of February this year she is an advisor to VUB Bank for corporate operations in Slovakia, also a member of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
Until February 2026, as a member of the PBZ Management Board, she was responsible for corporate activities for large and medium-sized enterprises and for the area of investment banking. She was also the president of the Supervisory Board of PBZ Leasing doo and a member of the Supervisory Board of the Zagreb Stock Exchange dd.
Ms. Jelušić Kašić was a partner responsible for financial advisory at Deloitte Croatia from 2018 to 2021. Her work included professional advisory in the areas of corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and financial restructuring. She was also the Head of Corporate Governance and led the Private Sector Initiative for the Adria region. Vedrana Jelušić Kašić worked for more than 20 years at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), from 1998 to 2018, where she was Country Director for Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Slovakia. She was also responsible for the EBRD’s activities in the agribusiness, food and beverage, and retail sectors in 12 countries in Southeastern Europe from 2007 to 2013, and was also a non-executive director of the supervisory boards of several leading private companies in Southeastern Europe. Vedrana Jelušić Kašić gained her initial business experience at Raiffeisen Bank in Croatia, Merrill Lynch Private Client Group in the USA, the Croatian National Bank and Monte Titoli in Italy. Vedrana Jelušić Kašić earned a Master of Science degree in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University in the USA, and a Bachelor of Economics degree from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, and is also the recipient of two Rector’s Awards. She completed her education in international finance at the Wirtschaftsuniversität and Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften in Vienna and holds a Non-Executive Director’s Diploma from the Financial Times in London. Vedrana was a member of the advisory councils of the President of the Republic of Croatia for two Croatian presidents (2018-2019 and 2020-2021). The Croatian Business Magazine has listed her among the 10 most powerful businesswomen in Croatia five times and the Croatian Women’s Network has listed her among the most influential businesswomen for 2020.
Miralem Mašić is an expert in People Analytics, Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) and decision making, with more than 20 years of experience working in regional companies and global corporations. Throughout his career, he has worked to understand what organizations often fail to see in time – how decisions actually travel through the system, where ownership is lost and why even good strategies often do not produce the expected results. He holds two master’s degrees from the United Kingdom and is the co-author of the Rootshift methodology, an approach that connects decision making, organizational dynamics and execution into one functional system. Through lectures, workshops and his own texts, he deals with topics that lie at the intersection of data, human behavior and real organizational power.
A law graduate with extensive experience in the fields of competition law, commercial law, corporate law and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with a particular focus on the energy and media sectors. He is the head of the competition team and is considered one of the leading Croatian experts in the field of competition.
During his career, he has advised clients in complex merger proceedings, represented them in antitrust and abuse of dominant position proceedings, and provided day-to-day legal support and specialized training in the field of competition law. He also has significant experience in the areas of commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, project finance, and real estate law.
It cooperates with clients from various industries, including telecommunications, the pharmaceutical industry and higher education. He is a regular lecturer at professional conferences, co-author of a publication in the field of distribution law, and a former member of the working group for drafting the Law on Compensation Procedures for Violations of Competition Law. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb and obtained the title of Master of Law and Business (MLB) at Bucerius Law School and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.
Master of Laws with more than ten years of experience in the insurance sector, specializing in regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), corporate governance and risk management. She currently holds the position of Director of the Compliance Office and AML Officer at Merkur Insurance dd, and was previously Director of the Compliance Office at UNIQA Insurance dd and Compliance Specialist at Allianz Zagreb dd
During her career, she led the establishment and development of the Compliance Framework, conducted risk assessments and compliance controls, advised management on regulatory issues, coordinated cooperation with supervisory authorities, and conducted compliance training. Since 2017, she has been a lecturer at the Zagreb Stock Exchange Academy, where she shares practical knowledge and examples of good practice in the areas of compliance, anti-money laundering, and corporate governance.
Master of Laws with more than 15 years of professional experience in the field of law, business compliance, corporate governance, human resources management and internal audit. She currently holds the position of director of the Management Office Sector at Merkur osiguranje dd, where she is responsible for strategic and operational management of human resources, legal affairs, business compliance, money laundering prevention and support to the Management Board, in addition to coordinating communication with regulators and the Konzern.
Before that, she was an internal auditor for corporate compliance at Fortenova Grupa dd, where she carried out internal audits, in-depth analyzes and activities related to the system of reporting irregularities, and she also gained experience as a senior legal advisor for compliance at HETA Asset Resolution Hrvatska doo and through legal practice. She holds the international certificate CCEP-I (Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional – International) and continuously improves her knowledge in the areas of human resources management, business compliance, risk management and corporate governance.
As Group Compliance Director at KANSAI HELIOS Group, a global coatings and chemicals producer, Maša Bantan Marot is responsible for designing and implementing the Group’s compliance management system, ensuring that business activities align with applicable legal requirements and internal standards. A key focus of her role is strengthening a consistent and effective compliance culture across the organization, particularly in the context of rapid global growth, acquisitions, transformation, and increasing regulatory complexity.
Maša holds a BA in Political Science, an MA in Strategic Marketing Communication, and an ICA GRC Diploma. She combines expertise in governance, risk, and compliance with a strong background in corporate communications and the integration of ESG principles into business operations. This unique perspective enables her to expand compliance beyond its traditional scope into a broader platform that promotes integrity across the organization and fosters an environment that supports ethical decision-making while effectively managing risks.
Dr. sc. Dario Car is the co-founder of DeeP Project, a company specializing in organizational development, assessments, and people analytics. In his work with organizations, he combines data, behavioral insights, and practical experience to help understand how decisions are made in real-world work situations, how people react to pressure, change, and uncertainty, and why formal processes often fail to translate into expected behavior. He is particularly interested in decision-making, organizational culture, responsible behavior, collaboration, and the application of new technologies in working with people.