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Sonja Licht
President
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Svetlana Stefanović
Executive Director
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Stefan Vladisavljev
Program Director
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Aleksandra Ćurčić
Head of Accounting
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Nebojša Miljanović
Logistics Coordinator
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Miloš Ilić
Financial Consultant
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Sandra Marković
Financial and Administrative Assistant
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Ivanka Stamenić
Program Coordinator
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Ivana Savić Jovanović
Program Coordinator
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Mirjana Đorđević
Program Assistant
Sonja Licht
President
Sonja Licht is the President of the Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society in Belgrade, Serbia.
She is currently Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Centre for Democratic Transition (ICDT), and a member of the Advisory Boards of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She is also a member of the Executive Board of the Jefferson Institute in both Washington D.C. and Belgrade. In Serbia, she was Chair of the BOD of Politika Newspapers and a member of the Executive Board of the Women’s Fund Reconstruction. She was also a board member of the Council of the European Cultural Foundation.
From 1991 to 2003 she was the first Executive Director and then President of the Fund for an Open Society (Soros Foundation) in Yugoslavia (later Serbia), a major donor of a vigorous civil society. Between 1991 and 1995 Sonja Licht was the co-chair of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, a broad coalition of various civic organisations and movements from all European and North American countries. She was part of the Yugoslav dissident movement from the late sixties, and in the mid-eighties she founded numerous local and international non-governmental organisations, including a number of women’s organizations.
In 2007 she became a member of the newly established Foreign Affairs Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as joining the Council for EU Integration of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.
Sonja Licht is a laureate of numerous international peace and human rights awards. In 2008 she received the Star of Italian Solidarity and the French Legion of Honour. Weekly magazine “Vreme” proclaimed her Person of the Year 2007.
Sonja Licht was a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in 2015.
Svetlana Stefanović
Executive Director
Svetlana Stefanović is the Executive Director of the Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society. She is responsible for the development of the Foundation and its employees, as well as for the design and implementation of strategy for the development of the Foundation.
From 2019 to 2022, she worked at the Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society as a program
coordinator and was responsible for conceptualizing, coordinating, and implementing program related to gender equality.
Also, from 2021, she is the National contact point for the second phase of the ROMACTED program.
She has over fifteen years of professional experience in managing long-term and complex projects, as well as extensive experience in managing grand and complex events, e.g. forums, conferences, debates, etc. She has proven experience in leading different teams, as well as in training, preparation, and evaluation of different projects. Svetlana is a recognized specialist in the development and set up of mentoring programs and she has over 10 years of mentorship and capacity building work of youth with a special focus on young women.
She is one of the original team members that founded the Belgrade Security Forum (BSF) success story in 2011 and till 2021 she was the BSF Executive Director responsible for the overall organization and realization of the BSF and she led the team of fourteen people.
From 2003 to 2018 she was a volunteer and an activist on different projects in the European Movement in Serbia, then worked as an Office Manager and Project and Event Manager.
She is a member and Executive Secretary of the Women’s Government since its establishment in 2007. She is a Member of the Program Board of the Women’s Leadership Academy.
In February 2019, she was appointed a member of the Executive Board of the Fulbright and Friends Association. She is a member of the Forum for International Relations of the European Movement in Serbia.
She participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program on “Women in Leadership: Advancing Women, Advancing Humanity” in the USA and she is an alumna of this network. Also, she is an alumna of the School of political studies of the BFPE and CoE, and MASHAV programme.
She graduated in International Relations from the Faculty of Political Sciences, University in Belgrade.
Her fields of interest include international relations, human security, women rights, mentoring and non-formal education. She writes and publishes articles on these topics. She speaks English.
Stefan Vladisavljev
Program Director
Stefan Vladisavljev holds program director position at Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society since April of 2024. Prior to that, Stefan was BFPE program coordinator and assistant. He is engaged in various projects of BFPE.
Stefan is part of the team behind Belgrade Security Forum. He holds program coordinator position and he is in charge of communication with Belgrade Security Forum speakers and moderators. As a part of the program team, Stefan is responsible for program planning, speaker selection and analytical writing.
During his engagement in BFPE, so far, he is mostly dealing with the topics in the field of international relations and security and foreign policy. His main expertise is cooperation between actors in the field of international relations, foreign actors influence, with the focus on cooperation between Western Balkans countries and China. He wrote and published several publications, articles, op-eds and blogs that dealt with those topics. Stefan is engaged and is actively participating in several projects implemented by the BFPE.
Stefan holds MSc degree in International Security from the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade.
Aleksandra Ćurčić
Head of Accounting
Aleksandra Ćurčić, Chief of Accounting has been working at BFPE since its foundation.
She has gained considerable experience in management of material and financial affairs in government institutions and non-governmental organizations in the last 34 years.
At the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence she is tasked with organizing, coordinating and controlling the financial aspects of our work – accounting; preparation and development of official financial statements in accordance with the relevant domestic law.
Nebojša Miljanović
Logistics Coordinator
Nebojša Miljanović has been with the BFPE since its foundation.
A highly skilled and versatile individual with 25 years of experience in different aspects of logistics, Nebojša provides invaluable support both to BFPE’s program and financial department.
Previously, he worked for the Fund for Open Society (Soros Foundation) in Yugoslavia (and then Serbia); as well as Yugoslav Airlines (JAT) and the “Moma Stanojlović” Military Institute in Batajnica.
Nebojša’s original educational background is in economics.
Miloš Ilić
Financial Consultant
Milos Ilic is a financial consultant at Foundation BFPE since December 2022.
He holds a Master’s degree in Law and has passed the judicial exam.
He started his professional career at the Center for Child Rights in 2000, which was then the Yugoslav Center for Child Rights. During his time there, he worked in various positions from assistant to manager, actively participating in the implementation of program activities. He also worked on human resources and legal affairs at the Center for Child Rights, as well as serving as a finance manager and a certified Quality Manager according to the ISO 9001 standard (certificate obtained from the Faculty of Technology at the University of Novi Sad). He actively worked on legal matters, independently drafting numerous general and individual acts.
Since 2016, he has been working at Save the Children, primarily in finance, human resources, and personal data protection. As a law graduate, he has been involved in drafting various types of contracts, regulations, resolutions, and other general and individual acts, including representing clients before tax authorities and other government agencies as an authorized legal representative.
He successfully defended his master’s thesis in the field of child rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.
At BFPE, Milos Ilic is in charge of responsible, proper and professional financial operations and reporting in accordance with the law.
Sandra Marković
Financial and Administrative Assistant
Sandra Markovic has been an administrative and financial assistant at the BFPE Foundation for Responsible Society since January 2022.
She is in charge of assisting the financial manager and the head of accounting during the preparation of documentation for reporting for the needs of projects, keeping and recording internal documentation, working on portals, as well as other tasks on a daily level.
Since 2016, she has worked in the civil sector in organizations whose main themes were gender equality, on projects funded by UNDP, USAID, Olof Palme, Care Balkans, as a financial assistant, while also participating in program activities.
She gained previous work experience in bookkeeping and administrative affairs in the financial sector of a company that deals with engineering in the oil industry.
Sandra graduated from Belgrade Business School, majoring in finance, accounting and banking.
Ivanka Stamenić
Program Coordinator
Ivanka Stamenic works as a Program Coordinator at the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, where she is in charge of coordination and implementation of the program for political education.
She started to work in Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence in February 2016 as an intern, supporting several of BFPE activities. After that, she worked as a Program Assistant on the projects related to political education, gender equality and involvement of citizens in decision-making processes both at the local and national levels. Also, from 2016 Ivanka is Member of the Belgrade Security Forum (BSF) organization team.
Ivanka Stamenic holds a degree in International Affairs obtained at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade.
Ivana Savić Jovanović
Program Coordinator
Ivana Savić Jovanović works as a Program Coordinator at the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, where she is in charge of coordination and implementation of the projects dealing with the local development and empowerment of Roma population.
She started her engagement in the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence as a volunteer and program assistant in 2011. She worked as program assistant on projects dealing with gender equality and regional cooperation. In 2013, she continued her professional career in several international companies, first as a marketing manager and later as a PR manager. In 2019, she returned to BFPE, as a coordinator of projects dealing with local development and empowerment of Roma population.
Ivana graduated in international relations at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade.
Mirjana Đorđević
Program Assistant
Mirjana Đorđević started her engagement at the Foundation BFPE for a Responsible Society as an intern in February 2022, while in August 2022 she became a program assistant.
Within the framework of BFPE, she works on various projects such as the Youth for Inclusion, Equality and Trust program which is part of a broader regional initiative of the United Nations, she works on research in the field of gender equality, such as research on the economic (non)power of women on the labor market in Serbia, but also help colleagues in other areas.
She graduated in International Relations at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, and is currently a student of the master’s studies in International Security at the same faculty. She received a scholarship from the OSCE Mission in Serbia. She is currently attending the Regional Youth Mobility Program and the Swedish Academy for Young Professionals. The subject of her interest is foreign and security policy, regional cooperation, local development and social inclusion.
President of the Management Board
Dr Saša Mirković
Teaching Associate, Faculty for Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Dr Radmila Nakarada
Professor (retired), Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade
Dr Marijana Pajvančić
Professor (retired), Faculty of Law, University of Novi Sad
Maja Piščević
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council
Bojan Predojević
Director, Profine Belgrade
Dr Vladimir Đurđević
Professor, Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade
Vigor Majić
Former Director, Research Station «Petnica»
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