Natasa Lalovic Maric

Attorney at Law, in cooperation with Wolf Theiss

Nataša Lalović Marić is a Partner and a member of the Serbian Bar and the International Bar Association (IBA). With more than 20 years of experience working in the fields of corporate law, M&A, capital markets, insolvency and restructuring, commercial litigation/arbitration.

Over the years, Nataša has advised a multitude of international clients on various forms of investments in Serbia, capital markets issues, as well as with respect to various disputes involving commercial matters.

Nataša holds a post-graduate degree in Capital Markets Law. She has been recognized for her excellence by leading professional review publications. From 2014 until 2018 Nataša acted as the head of the Business and Corporate Law Committee at AmCham Serbia. She is an arbitrator at the Permanent Court of Arbitration attached to the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. Nataša is fluent in English and Serbian and conversant in French.

Leo Morozov

Head of Non-Core and Real Estate Assets, Fortenova grupa

 Mr. Morozov started his professional career as an M&A analyst at Credit Suisse in New York. He subsequently moved to Europe to focus on the emerging CEE/SEE markets: initially as portfolio manager for Creditanstalt in Vienna and SEB in London, and later as an M&A expert at a boutique investment bank in Geneva. For the last 13 years Leo has been mostly focusing on real estate in this region as equity investor (Immoeast in Vienna, Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners in London), co-founder of a distressed real estate investment boutique in Budapest, restructurer and financier at Raiffeisen Bank International in Vienna, and head of investor partnerships for a development company Soravia. During his career he negotiated equity investments, joint venture agreements and debt financing totaling several hundred million EUR, and later restructured real estate NPLs in a comparable amount. At his current role at Fortenova (former Agrokor) he is responsible for the disposal of non-core assets (equity stakes and real estate) and the core real estate.

Uros Ivanc

CFO, Triglav Group

CFO and Member of the Management Board at Triglav Group from Slovenia since 2014. His responsibilities include finance, accounting, risk and real-estate. He started his career in finance in Triglav Insurance Inc., the parent company of Triglav Group, in 2001, where he worked in equity and bond research. In 2004, he assumed his first managerial position as a Head of corporate finance. In 2005, he was promoted to the position of an Executive Director – Finance at Triglav Group, where he stayed till 2014. During his career he had also performed the role of the CEO of a real-estate company Slovenijales Inc. in 2008, and had been acting as a portfolio manager for period of five years of a pension fund management company in Serbia. Since 2005 he has assumed many non-executive board positions in companies from Triglav Group and outside. Among others, he was a supervisory board member of NLB bank in Slovenia. Uroš was a president of CFA Society Slovenia from 2010 until 2018.

Miran Kovac

Partner/Managing Director, ALFI PE

Miran Kovač is a Partner and Managing Director. Prior to joining ALFI PE he spent eight years as a CFO at Bisnode Southern Markets, a leading European Rating agency covering 18 countries in Europe with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Bisnode Southern Markets is today the leading regional rating company, which has grown both organically and inorganically, via several mergers and acquisitions over the last eight years. Mr. Kovač actively participated and lead the integration processes in all of them. Prior to joining Bisnode Southern Markets, Mr. Kovač worked for five years at Poteza Group. Mr. Kovač holds a degree as Bachelor of Science from the Faculty of Economics, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2007)

Ivan Zec

Partner, Blue Sea Capital

Ivan Zec is a Partner in Blue Sea Capital, a private equity fund focused on the region of the former Yugoslavia. Prior to Blue Sea Capital, he worked as Chief Financial Officer and Management Board Member of Adriatica.net Group, a leading regional travel and tourism operator. He also has experience from his work in the M&A and Strategy department of Agrokor (now known as Fortenova). Ivan graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Croatia.

Vladimir Pavlovic

Director, WM Equity Partners

Vladimir has more than 15 years of experience in Serbian financial markets. He has proven track record in the creation of legal and institutional framework (National Bank of Serbia, Serbian Central Securities Depository), but also as an active participant in financial markets (CEO of FIMA International-brokerage, Portfolio Manager of the FIMA Proactive fund). Vladimir is a managing partner of the WM Equity Partners since its incorporation. He participated in numerous restructuring procedures, M&A mandates and corporate finance activities. He obtained his bachelor and master’s degree from the Belgrade Faculty of Economics and PhD in Public Finance on the Faculty of Political Sciences. Since 2006 he is a CFA charter-holder.

Kemal Sikiric

Partner, IMAP SEE

Kemal is a Partner at IMAP SEE, the leading independent M&A advisory firm in the Adriatic region, with more than 50 successfully closed transactions in the last 10 years. Kemal holds an EMBA from IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland and a Postgraduate Degree (PG Dip) in Organizational Leadership from Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK.

Lorena Macura

Vice President, SEAF

Based in Belgrade, Lorena currently serves as the Vice President in SEAF South Balkan Fund and SEAF Serbia Impact Fund. Lorena has 14 years of private equity and investment banking experience gained through direct investments in private companies and various M&A advisory projects in the Balkans. Prior to joining SEAF, Lorena worked as an associate at Synergy Capital, a Belgrade-based investment boutique company that served as the sell-side and buy-side advisor in large privatization projects in the Balkans. Lorena’s expertise embraces PE and M&A skills, as well as value creation skills gained by providing financial, operational, strategic advisory support and working closely with entrepreneurs and management teams. Lorena received her Bachelor’s degree (with distinction) and her MBA (with distinction) from the University of Sheffield, the United Kingdom.

Fabio Serri

Regional Head-SME Finance & Development, CSEE, EBRD

Fabio Serri is currently working for the EBRD as the Associate Director, Regional Head for SME Finance & Development Group based in Belgrade and covering the CSEE. Mr Serri is responsible for the support and expansion of the Bank’s SME agenda and also supervises the operations of the Enterprise Expansion Fund ENEF covering the Western Balkans and Croatia. ENEF is a EUR 50 million equity and quasi equity fund where EBRD has invested alongside DEG, OeEB, EIB and EIF. EBRD is investing in parallel with ENEF granting a total EUR 100 million for projects in the region. Prior to his current position he has been the Head of the EBRD office in Tirana and Pristina and worked for equity funds promoted by EBRD and investing in the Western Balkans.

Pavel Ezekiev

Managing Partner, NEVEQ Capital Partners

Pavel co-manages 3 funds: NEVEQ, Neo Ventures and Empact, where he is focused on enterprise software, marketplaces and shared services. He led the exits of Finanalytica to BISAM/FactSet, Vayant to PROS Holding and Properati to OLX. He worked at Microsoft in Redmond, WA and was an investment banker with Deutsche Bank in London. Pavel founded Deutsche’s Bulgarian business in 2004 as its chief country officer and left it to found Sofica Group, acquired in 2014 by Denver-based TeleTech (TTEC).
He enjoys downhill and off-piste skiing and kitesurfing and is a freelance photographer for lifestyle and outdoors media. Pavel was a trustee at the American University in Bulgaria. He speaks five languages and lives between Madrid and Sofia, where he is also co-managing a private investment company focused on disrupting space and health.

Henry Potter

Partner, Alpha Associates

Henry has been active in private market investing since 1992. He is responsible for the due diligence, evaluation, execution and management of fund investments, secondary transactions and direct co-investments in Central & Eastern Europe and Russia/CIS and serves on a number of fund advisory boards in the region.

Henry joined Alpha Associates in September 2008 from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), London. As Senior Banker at EBRD, he helped build EBRD’s private equity fund investment program into the largest in the CEE and CIS region and participated in a number of groundbreaking transactions in the region, including bank privatisations and turnarounds. In addition to his managerial and transactional responsibilities, he oversaw EBRD’s private equity performance data collection and analysis as well as the co-investment program between EBRD and its portfolio funds. Henry holds a B.A. and a M.Sc. from McGill University and the London School of Economics.

Kosta Andic

Managing Partner, ICT Hub

Kosta Andric is Managing Partner in ICT Hub and Managing Director at ICT Hub Venture. He has been leading ICT Hub since its establishment , when it started as an incubator for technology startups. In three years, Kosta led ICT Hub to become one of the leading organizations in Serbia which support technology entrepreneurship and startups. Kosta is also a pioneer of connecting technology startups with corporations in Serbia, influencing local branches of multinational corporations to open their doors to cooperation with tech startups. In January 2017, ICT Hub Venture investment fund has been launched, the first one in Serbia with the focus on investing in startups in an early stage of their development.

Ewa Abel

Investment Manager, EIF

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Zoja Kukic

Programme Director for Startup Ecosystem, Digital Serbia Initiative

Zoja Kukić is Programme Director for Startup Ecosystem in the Digital Serbia Initiative, private non-profit gathering more than 30 companies and organisations, working on and advocating for successful transformation of Serbia into a digital society. She is working together with entrepreneurs, investors, startup support organizations and corporations in order to improve the environment for the Serbian startups to grow.

Prior to this position, Zoja co-founded Startit, organisation behind largest startup hubs network in the region an online tech media, reaching more than 70.000 people every month. She obtained a Bachelor and Masters degree at Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade and is active in women-empowerment activities in the tech and business sector.

Luca Leoncini Bartoli

Head of Corporate & SME Banking covering CESEE Region, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA

Mr. Luca LEONCINI BARTOLI is an Executive Director of Intesa Sanpaolo with thirty years of corporate and structured finance experience. Since 2014, Head of the Corporate & SME Banking of Intesa Sanpaolo Subsidiary Banks Division covering CESEE countries and Egypt. Previously, he acted as General Manager of Intesa Sanpaolo (“ISP”), Paris branch and thereafter as General Manager of ISP London HUB supervising ISP wholesale branches in Western Europe. Prior to that, he was Global Head of Asset Securitisation & Risk Transfer of Banca IMI (Intesa Sanpaolo Group). He also served as Director to the Board of Banca Intesa Russia and previously of Banco Espirito Santo et de La Vénétie. Furthermore, he acted as Board Member of The Association of Foreign Banks in the UK and of Vice-President of the Council of Management of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in London. Mr. Leoncini Bartoli was born in Rome (Italy) and holds a degree in Economics and Business from the LUISS
University of Rome

Sonia Babilis

CIO, Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund

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Marko Vukadinovic

Managing Director, Head of CEE Financial Institutions Group, UniCredit

Responsible for the UniCredit Group's business with Financial Institutions in CEE.
With 18 years of FI Experience in Central and Eastern Europe, Marko spearheaded and executed more than EUR 15bn of transactions across FI sector in CEE

Dejan Tesic

Associate Partner, Western Balkans, BAC IP EAD (BAC Securities)

Dejan has over 25 years of experience in banking, ICT and international business. He held C-level executive positions in leading Serbian banks including Komercijalna Banka, Banca Intesa, AIK Banka and Piraeus Bank. Throughout his professional carrier, Dejan had led numerous projects aimed at implementation of state-of-the-art technologies in financial services industry. He had personally contributed to introduction of latest technologies in the area of online payments using International payment organizations such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, many of those being first pioneer implementations in Balkans and CEE region. He used to serve as a MasterCard Central and Eastern Europe Board Member and High Growth Markets Customer Advisory Forum Member.

Dejan also has extensive experience in banking sector restructuring in the region, being involved in several acquisitions and post-acquisition transformation processes. Moreover, he had been involved in a numerous corporate and project finance transactions, led investor relations office in AIK Banka and was active in local capital market being a member of the governance bodies of Intesa Eurizon and Kombank Invest funds.

Dejan holds PhD degree in business and managerial economics from Faculty for Business Studies and MSc degree in ICT Management from Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. He had improved his knowledge through Executive Education at London Business School, Visa Bank Card Business School in Cambridge and postgraduate projects at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Aleksandar Preradovic

AP Legal in strategic alliance with Prica & Partners

Aleksandar is a leading Serbian banking and finance and M&A lawyer.

His practice encompasses counselling on various cross-border financing transactions, where he has represented both lenders and borrowers in syndicated loans, leveraged acquisitions, mergers and other complex financing transactions, advising on various aspects of capital markets laws and advising lenders in many large bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings in the region.

His most recent experience includes advising the Government of Serbia on privatization process of Komercijalna Banka a.d. Beograd and advising EOS Matrix on acquisition of EUR 240 million NPL portfolio from Deposit Insurance Agency. Other recent representative transactions include advising consortium led by Incheon International Airport in the tender for concession of the Belgrade International Airport; advising VTB Capital in connection with EUR 40 million loan to RTB Bor; advising Credit Suisse on a sovereign loan to Montenegro; advising consortium of local banks and IFIs on the complex restructuring of EUR 260 million financial indebtedness of Victoria Group; advising syndicated of domestic and international lenders in connection with acquisition finance provided to KMV in connection with their acquisition of Knjaz Miloš from Mid Europa Partners.

With over 20 years of professional experience at the highest level, Aleksandar is recognised as the leading banking and finance lawyer in Serbia by all major international directories on the legal profession.

Emmanuel Daull

Investment Director, CVI

Emmanuel Daull is an Investment Director with CVI. Prior to joining CVI in 2018, Emmanuel spent 5 years in the corporate private debt team at Allianz Global Investors Paris. Earlier experiences include fianancial restructuring advisory at AlixPartners London and Paris, corporate ratings at Moody’s London and credit insurance at Euler Hermes Paris.
CVI is the leading private debt investor in the CEE region with c. 1.2bn AuM.

CVI offers a large range of products, mainly senior debt, junior debt, unitranche, mezzanine, minority equity to fund various purposes: working capital, capex, refinancing, M&A, dividend payment, financial restructuring.

Danica Gligorijevic

Partner, Prica & Partners

Danica is a Partner at Prica & Partners.

She specialises in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, energy, infrastructure and tax matters. Danica provides encompassing corporate legal advice covering everything from corporate and commercial transactions, incorporation matters, contract drafting and review, corporate governance issues, shareholder matters to capital transactions, restructuring and divestments.

As a recognised legal expert for mergers and acquisitions, Danica advises clients across all industry sectors on mergers, joint ventures, divestments and investments in Serbia. Her most recent experience includes advising the Government of Serbia on privatization process of Komercijalna Banka a.d. Beograd, the country’s second largest bank.

She also advised the Government of Serbia on the attempted privatisation of Telekom Srbija. Danica recently advised consortium led by Incheon International Airport in the tender for concession of the Belgrade International Airport. She has been involved in numerous other landmark mergers and acquisition in Serbia and Montenegro.

She also advises clients from a wide range of industries on tax issues such as corporate tax, VAT, customs and excise duties and representation in tax disputes.

With 20 years of professional working experience, Danica has considerable expertise in her fields of law, making her a highly skilled and reliable partner to work with.

Laszlo Wolf

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Banking Division, OTP BANK Plc

Laszlo Wolf supervises the corporate business of OTP Bank Plc including: treasury; SME and large corporations, project and agricultural financing, loans and syndications; and financial institutions and acquisitions.

After graduating at the University of Economics in Budapest in 1983, he started his banking carrier at the Hungarian National Bank in different positions. In 1991 he was managing director and the head of treasury in BNP-KH-Dresdner Bank in Budapest. In 1993 he joined OTP Bank as a managing director of treasury. Since 1994 he has held his present position as head of commercial banking division.

OTP Bank started its international expansion in 2001 under the supervison of Mr Wolf, by entering the Slovakian market, followed by successful acquisitions in Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Albania. He is member of the board of OTP Bank, president of the board of directors of OTP Banka, Serbia, member of the supervisory board of DSK Bank, Bulgaria and vice president of the Confederation of Hungarian Employers.

He speaks English and German.

Nicole Arditti

Senior Advisor, Lazard Frères

Nicole Arditti is a Senior Advisor of Lazard.She has 40 years of experience in international financial advisory, investment banking and finance, She has advised many governments, multinational corporations and financial institutions on privatizations and M&A, capital structure and investments, financing strategies, debt restructuring structuring and financing of large energy and infrastructure projects. She has acted as financial advisor to Serbia on the recent successful concession of Belgrade airport, to Telekom Serbia on its potential privatisation, to Serbian electricity company EPS on strategic options, and is currently advising the Serbian Ministry of Finance on the privatisation of Komercijalna Banka. She also recently advised the Croatian government on the refinancing of the €5 billion debt of the road and motorway sector, in coordination with the World Bank.She advised Slovenia SDH on the privatisation of the second largest bank Nova KBM, advised retail group Mercator on its financial restructuring, and KD funds on the sale of insurance company Adriatic Slovenica. She structured various landmark transactions in Eastern Europe, such as the investment of Renault in Slovenia, initial international placement of shares and debt refinancing for companies and banks in Croatia and Slovenia. She advised the Moroccan Ministry of Finance on the privatization of the shipping company Comanav, ONCF on its financial viability and on the Tangers-Casablanca high speed train project and ONE on the Jorf Lasfar 5-6 power plant project. She also advised the Republic of Indonesia on financing and debt management, the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Inga 3 hydropower project, the State of Papua New Guinea on the US$19bn PNG LNG project, and currently advises Kumul Petroleum Holding Limited on financing options for its equity stake in 2 new major LNG projects in PNG.Nicole started her career at Bank of America in 1976. She became Vice President, Senior Banker and Regional Investment Banking Officer, in charge of managing the relationships with major multinational corporations and French government agencies. She joined Lazard in 1985, became an Executive Director in 2000 and a Senior Advisor in 2013. Nicole is a graduate in business administration from HEC Paris, and from the international management program of the London Business School and New York University. She sits on the Board of the Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation (SIF), and is Vice President of the HEC Alumni Finance Hub.

Arnaud Jossien

Managing Director, BNP Paribas

Arnaud Jossien is a Managing Director at BNP Paribas, in the Investment Banking CEE department. He has 20 years of professional experience in Corporate Finance, including both Equity Capital Markets and M&A. Arnaud has been covering Central & Eastern Europe, Greece and Israel for over 10 years, successfully advising numerous clients (corporates, financial investors, State entities) across all sectors.

Alexandra Nagle

Managing Director, Alantra

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Igor Hrzic

Investment Manager, CEE Equity Partners

Investment professional with 15 years of experience in private equity and real estate in CEE region. Investment experience covers start-up investments, investments in real estate development/asset management and large businesses, as well as fund management and investor relations. Currently working as a regional investment manager focusing on investments in infrastructure and specialised manufacturing.

Igor joined the team of CEE Equity Partners after almost 8 years of investment management responsibility within Bluehouse Capital – a very successful regional PERE fund manager focusing on real estate investments (development and asset management). Prior to that Igor worked for 3 years for Erste Bank Group where he was recruited to develop a real estate consulting and brokerage business for its Croatian operations.

Igor started his career working in investment banking in Milan, Italy, but very quickly he moved to Croatia to join one of the first PE/VC funds that was operating in Croatia at that time.

Igor holds a Masters’ degree in international finance from Brandeis IBS/Bocconi MIEM programmes, and is fluent in English, Italian and Croatian. In his free time, Igor enjoys tennis, cycling, running and mountaineering.

Luka Bjekovic

Head of M&A, MK Group

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Stefan Stoyanov

Global Head of M&A Database, EMIS

Stefan leads the M&A data and analysis teams at ISI Emerging Markets Group, a renowned provider of business information for the world’s most dynamic economies. Stefan has worked on covering and valuing M&A deals across global emerging markets since 2011, after previously spending several years in investment advisory and asset management. He has authored various publications, analytical articles and newsletters on M&A. Stefan holds an MBA degree from the University of Michigan.

Stepan Karpukhin

Managing Director, TRG

Mr. Karpukhin is a Managing Director at the New York-based asset management firm, The Rohatyn Group (TRG). He leads private equity investments across CEE. Mr. Karpukhin has completed and exited investments in many sectors, including pharmaceuticals, retail infrastructure, and consumer. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Prestige, a confectionary business; and Chairman of the Board at Pet Network, a pet care retail group.

Prior to joining TRG, from 2006 to 2013, he was an investment officer at Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI). At CVCI, Mr. Karpukhin led private equity investments throughout the EMEA region and Russia/CIS and served on the Boards of Directors of four portfolio companies. From 2000 until 2006, Mr. Karpukhin was with Booz Allen, a leading global strategy consultancy, based in London, where he led a variety of strategic and operational assignments for global clients in the retail, consumer, telecommunications, and oil & gas sectors.

Mr. Karpukhin holds an MS degree in Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence from Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute and an MBA from Duke University. He is an enthusiastic follower of developments in a broad range of technologies and a keen investor in technology start-ups.

Vladimir Dasic

Senior Partner, BDK Advokati

Vladimir heads BDK’s M&A practice. He has 22 years of experience out of which 16 years of experience working as transactional lawyer. He has advised on the most prominent regional and national M&A deals in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, across industries, both in the context of privatisation and private transactions. His clients include strategic investors as well as private equity. Besides advising on classic M&A, Vladimir also assists clients in structuring joint ventures and implementing takeovers.