Council

Jasna  Plevnik

Founder and President of the Geoeconomic Forum Croatia. Dr. Jasna Plevnik is the author of several books on international relations including China’s Belt and Road Initiative’s Impact on Europe, Prunus Press USA (2022); The Belt and Road Initiative and its implications for Southeast Europe (2016); China in the Balkans (2013) with former President of Croatia Stjepan Mesić. 

She is also author of The Age of Economic Diplomacy (2011) together with Stjepan Mesić; The Price of the New World Order: World Challenges to National Interests (2009;) Beyond Globalization (2003) translated in Albanian as Pas globalizimit (2003). Served as an adviser to the President of Croatian Chamber of Economy Mladen Vedriš, former Deputy of Prime Minister of Croatia. Jasna was twice elected as an independent councillor in the City Council of Karlovac and the Assembly of Karlovac County. She worked as a communication manager and editor-in-chief at Jugoturbina Holding and was awarded with the Medal for Outstanding Performance. Jasna Plevnik attended as a panellist numerous forums and conferences on economic globalisation, China's global policy and was interviewed by Chinese media CCTV, Shanghai Dragon TV, Guang Ming Daily, Xinhua, China Daily and most influential media outlets in Europe and Croatia. Dr. Plevnik occasionally writes for Večernji List, Nacional, CGTN and China Daily.

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Srđan Kerim

Vice President of the Geoeconomic Forum. Professor Srdjan Kerim is an expert on international economics and foreign policy. He taught at universities in Belgrade, Hamburg, New York and Skopje. He is the author of 12 books from these areas, published in seven languages: Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian, English, Chinese, Russian and Albanian.

The most important diplomatic functions: the President of the UN General Assembly(the 62nd Session) Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of SFR Yugoslavia. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia. Special envoy of the Stability Pact for South East Europe. Special envoy of UN Secretary General for Climate Change.

Dr Kerim is an expert in  multilateral diplomacy. Was  in charge of multilateral affairs in the UN, G-77, Non-Aligned Movement activities and OSCE. He also took part in the negotiations with EU (then EC) on the Association Agreement between Yugoslavia and EU (1989–91).

In the business world: Vice President of Copechim France. Executive Director of Media Group WAZ for Southeast Europe. Special Adviser to Borda Ecolog International.

He speaks English, French, German and several Balkan languages.

Dr Kerim received the highest decorations from Germany, Austria, Italy, Albania, Malta and the United States.

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Zvonko Ladešić

Vice President of the Geoeconomic Forum.

He is the author of several books, among them Knowledge and human capital - an imperative for the future.

As an entrepreneur, he has had a career at the European level. In Germany, he received numerous awards as a manager in the field of organization of international bus transport. About his business activities, was published a book the Secret of Business Success.

He completed his studies at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, where he obtained the scientific degree of Master of Social Sciences in Economics. His doctoral dissertation analyzes the relationship between transport policies and transport companies from the perspective of transport policy theory and many years of managerial experience. His scientific interest has been focused on the geo-traffic importance of Croatia within the European Union, its connection with neighboring countries, and ways to improve Croatia's transport position.

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Mladen Vedriš

A  Professor of Economic policy at EFFECTUS – Entrepreneurial Studies – University College Zagreb. Vice-president of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, concerned with economy (1992-1993).Minister in the Government of the Republic of Croatia (1992). President of Executive Council City of Zagreb Assembly (1990-1993).

The owner of SONDER, a company dealing with consulting, strategic planning and representation of home and foreign companies.

President of the Croatian Chamber of Economy (1993-1995).Participated in projects with OECD, ILO, World Bank, UNESCO etc. Executive Program for Leaders in Development"(1999), Harvard, USA; "Risks and Benefits of Globalisation", a seminar in Washington, Friedrich-Neumann Stiftung and Bank of America (1999); "Global Business Global Institutions - Towards a Shared Value Base For the Institutions of the Global Economy" XIX Tällberg Workshop, Sweden (1999).

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Tomislav Dragičević

Has PhD in Technical Sciences, the field of Chemical Engineering. He completed the course „Program on Investment Appraisal and Management“ as  postdoctoral study at Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Main fields of experience include coordination and management of complex research projects, preparation of strategic documents, restructuring projects, their implementation and management. Worked as Director of INA Research and Development  and President of INA Management Board, the largest Croatian oil and gas company for 9 years. Executed INA restructuring and successful IPO. Director and owner of ATDS Ltd, consulting company. Executive director of  jv company SOL –INA, a leader on technical gases market, for 8 years. Member of SOL Croatia Supervisory Bord. President of the Croatian National Committee,  member of World Petroleum Council (WPC). Member of numerous national and international professional organizations, the author of more than 50 professional and scientific articles. Author and co-author of 2 books on restructuring problems in oil and gas industry.

Vitomir Begović

Was a Head of The Institute for Occupational Safety Improvement. He finished  postgraduate studies on the subject: Education of Adults in Conditions of Economic Globalisation. One of the leading Croatian experts in relations among the government, employers and unions. Was the Executive Director of the Human Resources at  the Agrokor Group (2011 -2015).

Chief Secretary of SSSH-a, the largest Croatian Trade Union (1997-2000), Chief Secretary of the Industrial Democracy Centre (2000), Chairman of the Economic and Social Council Tripartite Body (2000 - 2001). Participated in many international seminars: Technical Training Program for the Societies in Transition, organized by AFL-CIO and USAID (1997); a training programme at George Meany Centre, Washington (1998); Experiences of Local Dialogue, a seminar held in Belgium (2002); Development of Institutions and National Social Dialogue, Stability Pact seminar held in Sarajevo (2003).

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Ljubo Jurčić

Full professor at the Faculty of Economy in Zagreb. From July 2002 to December 2003, served as a minister of economy in the second Cabinet of Prime Minister Ivica Račan.Was  the member of Croatian Parliament in two mandates.

In Croatian parliamentary election 2007, Social Democratic Party nominated him as candidate for a Prime Minister. Was a member of the supervisory boards of Hrvatska brodogradnja - Jadranbrod, JANAF and Plinacro companies. Jurčić is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Zagreb Holding Company.

He is the President of the Croatian Economic Society since 2006. 
Published three books in co-authorship: China in the Balkans, International Trade thought History and the International Economics Handbook. Regularly writes columns on current political-economic topics.
He is the winner of the first five annual awards for the Economic Analyst of the year "Gorazd Nikić", „Privredni vjesnik“ by the choice of entrepreneurs.

Danko Plevnik

Renowned Croatian columnist and international relations analyst for Croatian and  regional media outlets. After specialist training in the USA, influenced by strategist Edward N. Luttwak, he was the first to promote the idea of geoeconomy in Croatia (1992).

Field of special interest: strategy of global political planning and security. Awards: Croatian Journalist of the Year, award by Slobodna Dalmacija (1991) and Croatian Journalist of the Year, award by the Croatian Journalist Association (1991 and 1992).Member of the Executive Board of the European Journalist Association (1999-2001). Ph.D. degree in the field of information science.Author: Information is Communication (1986), Towards the Civilization of Mobile Text (1988), The Sense of Bosnia (1997), New NATO and old Geopolitics (1999), The Chaos of Hegemony (2001), War and Piece for Croatia (2002).

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Robin Radin

Radin  is a graduate of the University of Chicago, UC-Berkeley and Harvard Law School and also studied at Tokyo University  and Kyoto University..

He pursued opportunities linking law and his knowledge of Asia, as a head counsel for the North America of Marubeni, one of the largest Japanese general trading companies; and later as a managing director and  general counsel for Asia-Pacific at two of the largest global financial institutions, Morgan Stanley  and Credit Suisse-First Boston (’92-‘96), based in Tokyo and Hong Kong,

In 1996, Radin returned to academe, first as Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard’s Program on US-Japan Relations, at the invitation of Professor Ezra Vogel, to analyze the restructuring of Japan’s financial industry and regulatory system. Next, he returned to Harvard Law School, where he served as Associate Director of its Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) from 1996 to 2003, teaching Japanese financial law and regulation. In that capacity, he founded and lead its renowned Japan-U.S. Financial Symposium (“The Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the U.S.”) now in its 22nd year.  The Symposium remains the leading bi-lateral annual forum of financial system leaders of those two countries and spawned the creation by PIFS of financial symposia that address financial relations between Europe-U.S., China-U.S., Latin-America-U.S., Russia-U.S., India-U.S. and other countries, at annual meetings.

Radin was (i) a founder and CEO of several companies and a founder and senior executive of a minerals distribution company (White Gold Mountain Partners LLC), an unprecedented business joint venture between private U.S. and North Korean interests that developed and carried on business during the years 1997 to 2002.

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