As an executive in technology and business, I bring over 15 years of comprehensive experience, marked by pioneering ventures and strategic team leadership. My journey includes founding and successfully exiting companies to industry giants such as EY and forging impactful joint ventures with marketing luminaries like WPP’s Grey Group. My entrepreneurial spirit led me to embrace the Web3 revolution in 2022, stepping in as the CEO of NEAR Balkans Hub, the most enduring Hub in the NEAR ecosystem. This role not only honed my expertise in Web3 and enabled me to build up global connections but also solidified my commitment to driving innovation and growth by combining the best of web2 and web3. On my next role, I’m decisive to make an even larger impact on a global scale by utilising my know-how and network both from traditional business and web3. Living between Zagreb and Dubai.
Experience: 11 years
Yearly salary: $140,000
Hourly rate: $120
Nationality: 🇭🇷 Croatia
Residency: 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
Experience
Co-Founder/Advisor
PathfinderDapp 2023 - 2024
Co-founded a security related web3 product - Pathfinder. It is a decentralised file sharing solution that enables the secure way to send files between users while enabling them to remain in full control and ownership data. Built on the NEAR protocol blockchain, it enables free, encrypted and simple peer-to-peer based file sharing for any business or end user that cares about their data privacy.
CEO
NEAR Balkans Hub 2022 - 2024
Launching and operationally leading NEAR Balkans Hub in the NEAR eco-system with multiple decentralised teams and budget management working closely with NEAR foundation especially on the enterprise related matters. 2 products launched on NEAR from NEAR Balkans Product Lab - Tekuno and Pathfindweb3 solutions. Over 50 community on-boarding events, such as ETH Belgrade, WeAreDevelopers Berlin, WebSummit Qatar and Blocksplit were organized, with a strong presence in the mainstream media, such as Bloomberg. Myself and my team negotiated deals with major web3 and web2 companies such as A1, Styria Media Group, Mastercard, Nansen, Axelar, EY, Deutsche Telekom. Created the improved UX/UI of NEARCatalog.
Customer Experience & Digital Leader
EY (Ernst&Young) 2018 - 2022
Setting up and running the first digital department within CEE consulting at EY's Big 4 company. Responsible for multi-million dollar revenue generating business and closing and managing clients such as Philip Morris on a regional and Bayer on a global level. Some of the projects included restructuring and marketing effectiveness for a tech client on a European level, optimization and cost-effectiveness for an international media buying agency on a European level, HR transformation projects with digital competencies and RnR model building, digital transformation of a banking group, AI-based solutions for startups and government, CRM feasibility studies for the government agency.
Digital Director
Grey Group (WPP) 2014 - 2016
Launched a joint venture with Grey, a creative agency part of the largest marketing holding in the world (WPP), where I took the additional role as a Digital director, helping set up the digital department and onboarding new digital businesses such as 2nd largest telco company (the agency would lose overall business without us successfully leading digital part), large car manufacturer, international FMCG company.
Founder/CEO
Entourage Digital Company 2013 - 2018
Solo founded the company. Proceeded to build a web2 and marketing business with clients like Microsoft, Philips, A1 group, regional governments to name a few. Built a facial recognition solution for retail user behaviour mapping. Successfully delivered projects such as AI driven fertility hardware device, advergaming campaign before metaverse was a thing, marketing strategy for a country, digital strategies and implementation for one of the leading telco companies. Business was successfully bootstrapped and ran for 5 years before it was acquired by EY.
VP External Relations
Degordian 2009 - 2013
As a 2nd hire in one of the first and largest digital agencies in the CEE region, I’ve helped to build the company from scratch by setting up account management and creative teams, recruitment and hiring, onboarding new clients, and taking over responsibility for revenue and profitability, managing overall strategy and external positioning of the business.
Skills
bootstrap
business-development
developer-relations
marketing-strategist
operations
pr
strategy
marketing