Ljupco Georgiev

Ljupcho Georgiev is Microsoft’s General Manager for Macedonia and Kosovo since April 2016 and a member of the Central & Eastern Europe Leadership Team.

His responsibilities and main activities include:

• Leading and organizing all sales & management activities, coordinating sales, support, finance, logistics and marketing.
• Building partner network and business development of new leads.
• Work closely with the cross functional departments of marketing, engineering, business development, product management, product marketing, product management, operations teams and other internal constituents to help determine business and technical needs and ensure these requirements are conveyed to the appropriate organizations.
• Help establish cooperative support arrangements with partners and internal constituents to help drive engagements. These will encompass service and support processes, escalation procedures, and methods and metrics to ensure mutual customer satisfaction.
• Perform process improvement activities with internal constituents and partners to improve overall customer satisfaction and partnership value.
• Supporting the annual sales planning process, together with our global sales leadership and finance teams.

Second Vice-President

Maja Filipceva

Head of Tax and Outsourcing
Grant Thornton Macedonia (member since 2000)

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2012 – present       Grant Thornton Macedonia, head of tax and outsourcing
2006 – 2012           Vip Macedonia, Back office compliance Manager
2005                         Internship Wind Italy
2000 – 2006          Makedonski Telekom, Process specialist within company functional dpt.

Other Affiliations

• Member of AmCham Lawmaking & implementation Committee (2012-present)
• Member of GTI Global Tax & Outsourcing Committee
• Member of Inner Wheel Club Skopje Europea
• Participant in “Pay It Forward Day”
• Participant in “Tolerance Day Round Table”
• Participant in Supporting “Onecan” Single Mothers

Education

Ms. Filipceva holds Bachelor’s Degree in Law University from Ss. Cyril and Methodius and is certified lawyer since 2006. She also mastered in Communication from Università di Roma LUMSA.

Grant Thornton International training programs

• Advance Manager Program I, Chicago 2013
• Advance Manager Program II, Madrid, 2013
• Advance Manager Program III, Bangkok, 2014
• Leading Change, Rome, 2014
• GTI Tax Academy I, Dublin 2015
• GTI Tax Academy II, London, 2016
• GTI Tax Academy III, Madrid, 2017
• Emerging Leaders Program, Athens, 2018

Dragan Davitkov

Employment History:

Sep 2018 – present     Country Managing Director, PwC North Macedonia
Nov 2015 – Aug 2018 Senior Manager, PwC, Netherlands

Other Affiliations:

Member of the Council for Advancement and Oversight of the audit of the Republic of North Macedonia (2012-2015)
Member of the Managing Board of the Institute of Certified Auditors of the Republic of North Macedonia

Education:

Dragan holds a B.S.c in Financial Management and Accounting from University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Faculty of Economics, Skopje.

Nikola Ljushev

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

July 2018 – present              Chief Executive Officer, Makedonski Telekom AD

September 2017 – June 2018  Chief Executive Officer, Crnogorski Telekom

October 2015 – Dec 2016          Executive Director Macedonia, one.Vip DOO Skopje

June 2015 – September 2015  Executive Director Macedonia, Vip operator DOOEL Skopje

December 2007 – June 2015   Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technology Officer, Vip operator

August 2014 – May 2015           Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Blizoo Macedonia

July 2005 – November 2007    Chief Technical Officer, Cosmofon

EDUCATION

Mr. Ljushev holds a Bachelor degree in telecommunications, advancing his knowledge at the prestigious University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Global Telecom Business – London awarded him twice as one of the top Forty-Under-Forty executive directors in the telecommunication segment worldwide.

Mihael Solter

Employment History:

Jan 2016 – present
General Manager Macedonia, Philip Morris International

Jan 2014 – Dec 2015
Commercial Manager, Philip Morris International

Jan 2013 – Dec 2013
Manager Distribution & Special Projects, Philip Morris

Aug 2012 – Dec 2012
Manager Sales Information Central Europe South, Philip Morris I

Oct 2009 – Jul 2012
Manager Sales & Distribution Integration South Africa

Education:

Mihael obtained his degree from the University of Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia.

Marjan Petreski

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2008 – present                        Associate professor and Senior researcher, UACS

2013 – present            Vice-Rector for Research, UACS

2012 – present             Strategic Adviser, Finance Think – Economic Research and Policy Institute

2010 – 2013                  Vice-Dean for Research, UACS

Oct 2012 – Mar 2015   Postgraduate Teaching Fellow, CERGE-EI, Research centre – Prague

2009 – 2010                 Econometrician, National Bank of Macedonia

2006 – 2009                Economist for Macroeconomic models and forecasting, Ministry of Finance in Macedonia

Education

Mr. Petreski holds a PhD in Economics and Master degree in Banking and Finance.

Honors and awards

Mr. Petreski has been awarded the Young Scientist Award 2009 by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts; the Olga Radzyner Award 2010 by the Österreichische Nationalbank; the Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development 2013 by the Global Development Network and the Government of Japan; and the LSE-CEFTA Award 2016 for paper on trade by the CEFTA Secretariat and the London School of Economics.Top

Verica Hadzi Vasileva-Markovska

Verica Hadzi Vasileva-Markovska has almost 35 years experience in various consulting, advisory, training and public administration assignments. She is one of the founders and Managing Partner of AAG – Analysis and Advisory Group, a Macedonian consulting company involved in various advisory assignments both to the Government ministries and agencies and corporations.

Prior to AAG, she was a Partner in Ernst & Young Southeast Europe on Transaction Advisory Services, in charge for Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo. Before that she was a director of the Privatization Agency of the Republic of Macedonia and Deputy Director since the establishment of the Privatization Agency.

Verica was one of the founders and first President of the AmCham Macedonia. She was member of the Council of the Central Bank of RM in the period 2006-2013. Verica is one of the initiators, founders and member of the Board of the Institute of Directors of the Republic of Macedonia. She is currently President of the Supervisory Board of Makedonijaturist AD, owner of Holiday Inn and Best Western hotels in Skopje and prior to that she was a member of the Managing Board of Pivara – Skopje, the Coca Cola and Heineken company in Macedonia.

Verica holds a master degree in Marketing from Economic Faculty in Skopje and Graduate Certificate of Business Administration from the Swinburne University from Australia. Verica is a Certified Macedonian Auditor, a Licensed Valuator and Licensed Mediator in the Republic of Macedonia.

William N. Dunn

Dr. Dunn has been a Professor of Public Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh. He has also held teaching and research positions at Leiden University, the University of Bologna, the Lombardy Institute for Research and Statistics, and the University of the West Indies. He is the founding Director of the University of Pittsburgh-Macedonia Master’s Program in Public Policy and Management (MPPM). Through the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, MPPM degrees have been awarded to 57 Macedonian alumni.

He has consulted with governmental, non-governmental, and private-sector organizations including the Office of the President of the U.S., the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the United Nations Development Program, and General Motors. In addition to Public Policy Analysis: An Integrated Approach, 6th ed. (Routledge 2018), which is translated into Macedonian, Chinese, Russian, Romanian, and Arabic, he has published other books, articles, and government reports. His expertise includes public policy analysis, program evaluation, applied statistics, and knowledge management.

He is past President of the Policy Studies Association and recipient of the Douglas McGregor, Aaron Wildavsky, and Donald Campbell awards for research excellence. He is also recipient of the Alisa Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration, awarded by the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2016 he received the University of Pittsburgh Provost Award for Excellence in Mentoring. He is an Elected Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Public Administration.

Kristijan Polenak

Kristijan Polenak completed his professional education in 1994 at the University “St. Cyril and Methodius” in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. He is practicing law as a licensed lawyer since February 1997.

His professional career has mainly focused on banking, finance and corporate law, along with managing the business of Polenak Law Firm as its managing partner.

His role as a legal advisor in major transactions in the banking sector, privatisations, mergers and acquisitions, creates a track record of one of the most experienced corporate lawyers on the market.

International legal directories name Kristijan Polenak as: “an experienced lawyer with good contacts in the community”, “excellent lawyer with acute business sense”, and rank the firm he manages in the first tier for many years.

Active in the corporate community, Kristijan was acting as a non-executive member of several Boards of Directors of companies in Macedonia, Brokerage House Bro-Deal AD Skopje (1999 – 2003), Eurostandard Bank AD Skopje (2001-2004), Insurance Company Eurolink AD Skopje, (2002-2005), Insurance Company Sava Tabak AD Skopje (2007-2008), Skopje Brewery (2009-2011) and the Board of Directors of the Macedonian Stock Exchange AD Skopje (2004-2011 – President of the Board of Directors 2008-2011). He is currently engaged as an independent member of the Supervisory Board of Sparkasse Makedonija Bank.
Kristijan is one of the founding members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Macedonia and an honorary member of its Board of Directors.

His personal contributions are also channelled through participation in several social clubs and associations, including the Rotary Club Skopje – Kamen Most.

Dejan Kalinikov

Dejan Kalinikov is Managing Director of the private equity fund SEAF Macedonia II. He also manages two other, smaller private equity funds in Macedonia, SIF and MIF, which are funded by SEAF and USAID respectively. Between 2011 and 2014, Dejan worked as a management consultant in the domain of strategy and finance.

Prior to his consulting career, in the period 2009 – 2011, he served as a Chief Operating Officer and member of the Board of Directors of the telecommunications operator One (part of Telekom Slovenije Group), and as a President of the Board of Directors of One to One (formerly Germanos).

In the period 2002 – 2009, Mr. Kalinikov worked for the US based private equity fund SEAF Macedonia, initially joining SEAF as investment officer and ending his tenure in SEAF Macedonia as a Director General. During his engagement in SEAF, Dejan served as a member of the supervisory board in a number of SEAF Macedonia portfolio companies (Login Systems, On.net, etc.).

Dejan received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering with concentration in Computer Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Macedonia. As a Ron Brown Fellow (a fellowship presented by the US State Department to top performing young professionals in Eastern Europe), Mr. Kalinikov completed the MBA program at the Emory University in Atlanta, GA. As a result of his academic achievements, he received the American Marketing Association Award and was admitted in the prestigious business students’ scholastic association, Beta Gamma Sigma.

Among others, his professional experience includes the positions of a Trade and Investment Specialist and Associate Account Manager in the Macedonian Business Resource Center. He was also employed in the IBM Representative Office in Macedonia as a Technical Consultant and worked as a Marketing Communications Associate in the Lucent Technologies’ Optical Fiber Solutions Division in Atlanta, GA. He was a member of the task force for creation of the National Strategy for Information Society in the Republic of Macedonia, member of the National ICT Committee, member of the Listing Committee of the Macedonian Stock Exchange and member of the Board of Directors of the Agency for Foreign Investments.

As a former President of the Board of Directors of AmCham in Macedonia, Mr. Kalinikov continues to serve in AmCham as an honorary member of the AmCham Board of Directors. Dejan was also member of the Board of Directors of the Macedonian National Foundation for Organ Transplantation, and is an active member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Directors, and member of the National Committee for Entrepreneurship and Innovations.

Stefan Plavjanski

Stefan Plavjanski is a powerful business driver whose entrepreneurial instincts and clarity of vision have carried multiple local companies through rapid and continuous growth. He is well recognized and reputable high potential executive with wide experience in the ICT industry in the region having more than 20 years of visionary leadership, business development expertise and distinguished performance.

Stefan Plavjanski currently hold position of Microsoft Country Manager for Macedonia and Kosovo. During his time with Microsoft he has demonstrated exceptional business leadership skills and innovative approach towards the company priorities.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Stefan held Sales executive role at HP Macedonia, managing enterprise business in Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania, having responsibility for sales and marketing operations related to Servers, Storages, Networking and Services. Prior to his assignment with HP, Stefan worked for EuroNetCom, taking the challenge to bring the concept to the market in only 12 months. Creating number of partnerships and alliances and approaching and addressing new markets (Kosovo and Albania), Stefan managed to position the newly established company as one of the most relevant players in ICT market in the region, especially in Finance and banking industry.

Stefan started his professional career in IBM, working as Sales representative of IBM representative office in Skopje, Macedonia, having regional coverage (Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania) and later promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing. Being one of those rare professionals who seem able to build relationships, trust, and rapport with almost anyone, and then create partnerships and alliances, during his time in IBM Stefan established and developed IBM partner ecosystem in the region enabling quick growth of the business.

He possesses great knowledge of international business standards, procedures and practices.

Stefan Plavjanski is Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering (Specialization in Computer Technology, Information and Automatics) from the University St. Kiril and Metodij in Skopje, graduating as one of the top 3 students in his generation.

Stefan actively participates in the business community of the country being active member and President of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Macedonia for 3 years. At the moment he is president of the ICT Chamber MASIT in Macedonia with the role starting from August 2015.

Liza Popovska

CFO Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company ADRIA BU (Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina & Slovenia )

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

• Strategic finance and business vision for the organisation
•  Business partnering with all other functions
•  Organizational restructuring and enhancement of the finance personnel caliber through trainings, on the job coaching and project assignments
•  Highly oriented towards accelerated development of commercial finance unit in the organisation
•  Responsible for the performance of the organisation through the quality set of Key business performance indicators
• Facilitation of the know-how transfer of the best practices between the countries in the system and cooperate with The Coca Cola Company for various financial aspects.

• Ability to benchmark the performance of the operations in order to identify and implement improvement opportunities and measures.
• Efficient communication with auditors, consultants and banks
• Preparation of the financial reports in a highly professional manner in accordance with the International Accounting Standards (IAS)
• Orientation toward long-term financial planning and successfully managing the Working capital
• Fully devoted to continuous learning and personal improvement (has attended several eminent trainings and seminars which include EXCEL the Coca Cola Hellenic Program, Heineken General Managers Program, IMD Lausanne-Strategic-Finance Leadership, IEDC Bled-Roundtables for practicing managers, IMD Lausanne-CFO lead program, IEDC Bled School of management-Communication Skills, and Conflict Resolution Abilities of Today’s Business Leaders, Euromoney training corporate finance skills, Karrass Effective Negotiating Course, Euro money training – Financial analyses and forecasting, Coca Cola Situational Leadership, Heineken World Class Performance Programme – Skopje, IMD Lausanne – Business Planning workshop and many other trainings, seminars and conferences in the country and abroad).

EMPLOYMENT RECORD

EDUCATION:

• 1985-1990   Bachelor in economy at Cyril Methodius University, Skopje
•  1999   Euro money training corporate finance skills
•  2000    Karrass Effective Negotiating Course – London
•  2001 Euro money training – Financial analyses &forecasting -London
•  2002 Heineken World Class performance programme – Skopje
• 2003 IMD Lausanne- business planning workshop
• 2004-2009 President MBA Program – IEDC  Bled  School of management-Slovenia
• 2003-2004 Heineken General Managers program
• 2007 IMD Lausanne –Strategic-Finance Leadership
• 2007 IEDC Bled-Roundtables for practicing managers
• 2008 IMD Lausanne-CFO lead programme
• 2009 IEDC  Bled  School  of management-Leadership for High performance
• 2011  IEDC  Bled  School  of management – Communication Skills and Conflict Resolution Abilities of Today’s Business Leaders
• 2012      EXCEL Coca Cola Hellenic program

MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

• 2011/2012       Vice president of Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce Macedonia
• 2012-2014        President of Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce Macedonia

Languages: Indicate competence on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 – excellent; 5 – basic)

Miroslav Marchev

Mr. Marchev holds a Masters in Law from the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. He is a Member of Sofia Bar Association. He works for PWC from May, 2001. During his work for one of the largest consulting firms in the world and in Macedonia as well as in different jurisdictions he gained sufficient knowledge and understanding on the good business and corporate governance practices. He was appointed on a position Tax and Legal Services Director in 2011.

Slavko Projkovski

Employment history

July 2015 – Present CFO, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje
2010-July 2015 CFO, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje & T-Mobile Macedonia
2007-2010 CFO, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje
2004-2007 CFD & Controlling Executive Director, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje
2002-2004 Director of planning and analysis department, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje
1998-2000 Head of Division. for telecommunication and IT strategy department, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje
1995-1998 Assistant Engineer for transmission systems, Investment department, Makedonski Telekom Inc. Skopje

Education

1993-1998Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University St. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje

• BSc in Electrical Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications

Ilijanco Gagovski