Ms Jelena Rodic Pesic, born in Belgrade, holds MS in History from Belgrade University but spent more than 5 years in Finance department in one of the biggest Open Access Publishing companies in Belgrade, MDPI doo. During this period, she was directly involved creation of several Rulebooks, responsible for e-banking payments, creation of financial reports, supporting colleagues in travels to conferences and scholar visits. Additionally, while working, she completed accounting course in Belgrade from Privredni savetnik, allowing her to understand better financial practice she was involved in. Jelena finds Excel sheet amusing, as a playground for releasing imagination, though it can be frustrating sometimes, keeps her mind busy.
In addition to this, Jelena use to be a professor in one of Belgrade’s Gymnasiums and has a full understanding of learning processes.
In free time, Jelena likes to ride a bike, lift weights, and walk her dog, black German shepherd female, Dia.
Ms. Tanja Zaharieska holds a Master's degree in Business Law from the University "St. Cyril and Methodius" Skopje, Faculty of Law "Justinian First" department Business Law, and a degree in Economy from the University "St. Cyril and Methodius" Skopje, Faculty of Economy, financial management department.
She is a youth worker, she has ended the first year of the Level A training course "Leadership and Developmental Youth Work", under the Swedish University "School of Education and Communication"- Jonkoping University.
She has more than 20 years of experience in the NGO sector in North Macedonia, as a project manager and financial manager in local organizations. She was directly responsible for preparing the financial and narrative reports for the projects financed by IPA and other European funds, World Bank, OSCE, GIZ etc.
In the last 10 years, she has worked in the business sector as an Authorized Appraiser in different areas. Also, she is an expert in the field of material financial and accounting operations.
Mr Shehu graduated in Finance from the Economic University of Pristina. He has more than 15 years of experience in the field of finance, accounting, administration and procurement.
He worked in various financial institutions and banks as a branch coordinator and loan officer, as well as in the SIDA and USAID programs in the field of property rights.
During his engagement in the NGO sector, Mr Shehu’s focus of work has been human rights, minority rights, youth activities for reconciliation, property rights and gender equality. Mr Shehu has been part of several national and international workshops, conferences and activities in the field of finance, both as an organizer and as a participant. He speaks English, Albanian, Serbian and Turkish.
Mr Shehu is married and has two children. In his free time, he enjoys walking and listening to music.
Mr. Florian Idrizaj has studied at the University of Tirana for economic sciences and he is graduated also in Professional Master studies in economic sciences. His experience with European Programs started since 2010 within the participation into youth programs exchanges through Youth in Action program and after with Erasmus Plus program. In the field of finance, he practiced his profession as a financier starting in 2015, working as an employee of the public administration and later in accounting studio for foreigner clients.
The experience with the financial management of the European projects started in 2021 by coordinating Interreg IPA II CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro projects. He is responsible for collecting financial information, calculating staff costs, preparing financial reports related to budgets, payments, and expenses, making budget reallocation, forecasting expenditures, developing strategies to minimize risks, etc. Florian has experience in project coordination in different European Programs like Erasmus+, Balkan Med Interreg, Adrion Interreg, IPA II Interreg CBC, etc. He owns English and Italian language
Ms Markulić has been actively engaged in the civil society since 2013, firstly as a volunteer of EMinS afterwards as a President of its Youth Forum in two mandates. Her focus was on establishing and enhancing a network of young people interested in the EU on a local and national level, advocating for regional cooperation and promoting reconciliation in the framework of EU integration process, among youth in Serbia and the WB region .
In CRTA she continued to work on empowerment of CSOs on the local level, focusing on direct work with informal groups and CSOs on strategic and organizational development, mentoring and monitoring of project cycle and sustainability as well as enrolled in the grant making process. In October 2022. she has obtained certification on Conflict Resolution and Mediation Skills from the Open College Network Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
Ms Markulić holds a BA degree in International Relations and MA in European Integration, both from the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. She speaks English, French and Russian language. Ms Markulić is an alumnae of OSCE Dialogue Academy for Young Women from Belgrade and Pristina.
Mr Cvijović has been engaged in the civil sector since 2016, firstly as a volunteer of the European Movement in Serbia and later as Project Assistant at the EMinS and President of the Youth Forum of EMinS. From 2019 to 2021 he was also a member of the organising team of the Belgrade Security Forum, as coordinator of participants. His work was mainly focused on raising awareness of youth in Serbia on the EU in general and the process of European integration, enhancing regional cooperation in the Western Balkans within the EU integration process, as well as establishing institutional support for the civil society in Serbia to promote interculturalism among youth.
In the field of interculturalism, he initiated and established, together with representatives of 25 CSOs from Serbia, a non-formal network “United by diversity”, with the aim of strengthening capacities of youth CSOs and CSOs dealing with youth for the empowerment of young people on topics of interculturalism and cultural diversity.
Mr Cvijović holds a BA degree in International Relations from the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade. Currently, he is a master’s student of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science and International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. From 2018 until 2020 he was engaged as a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Political Science on subjects of Introduction to Diplomacy and Diplomatic Analysis and Contemporary Diplomacy. He speaks English and Russian languages.
Mr. Davor Džakula holds an MA degree in Democracy and Human Rights obtained on a dual program organized by the University of Sarajevo and the University of Bologna. In addition, he holds a BSc degree in Geography and Geoinformatics from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad.
His interest and involvement in the civil sector and youth rights date back to 2013, where he has been working in non-governmental organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia until today. Through volunteering and working at the Red Cross, EKOS, and the Youth Office in Šabac, he actively participated in the implementation of projects focused on youth rights, the right to a healthy environment, and the promotion of volunteerism. While working in the Youth Office, he was part of the organizational team for seminars and summer schools that were formed with the aim of encouraging young people to be active citizens as well as their extra-academic education and training. During his studies in Sarajevo, he was a part of the fellowship of the Humanity in Action Bosnia and Herzegovina organization entitled Encouraging Democratic Values and Active Citizenship Among Youth, whose ultimate goal was the development of projects for young people and the general acquisition of the necessary knowledge in developing and managing projects, about the state system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the sphere of legal frameworks related to youth rights.
In addition, he participated in numerous seminars in Serbia and abroad regarding peace building, development and education of young people, and the development of cooperation and joint projects among mostly young people from the Western Balkan region. During both levels of study, he attended summer schools and seminars organized as part of the CEEPUS and ERASMUS networks, which were thematically related to regional development (CEEPUS summer school in Brno, Czechia) and peace building (ERASMUS seminar in Tromso, Norway), as well as student exchange, also through the ERASMUS program, at the Palacky University in Olomouc (Czechia).
Ms Bojana Zimonjić holds an M.A. in European Integration from the Faculty of Political Science, the University of Belgrade, where she also obtained her B.A. in International Politics.
Her engagement in the fields of youth work, mobility and higher education sectors in Serbia and Europe started in 2013. Since then, she was working with two organizations with a strong impact on young people, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), which supports and develops international student mobility and intercultural learning, and the Western Balkans Alumni Association (WBAA), a regional initiative that promotes regional cooperation and contributes to the modernization of higher education in the region.
Ms Zimonjić has been professionally engaged as a project manager in two youth NGOs in Serbia, working on the topics of digital and media literacy as well as the educational and professional development of young people.
As part of her master's studies, she participated in the Erasmus+ exchange program and spent a semester studying at the University of Konstanz in Germany.
Mr. Rizinski’s engagement in the youth sector began in 2010, as youth activist and debate trainer. Throughout his career he developed strong professional and interpersonal communication skills and extensive experience in multicultural environments and diverse teams. More than 8 years of experience working with various stakeholders in introducing educational interventions and system changes on national, local and school level. Evident from implementation of USAID Youth Ethnic Integration Project as Project coordinator and performing as Quality Assurance Officer for supervising the implementation of youth-led capacity building activities for various projects funded by UNICEF and UNHCR in North Macedonia.
His hobbies and interests include international politics, digital tools and AI, as well as music and nature.
Ms.Bebekovska holds a BA in Law from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, North Macedonia.
Her engagement started in 2015, joining the student movement in North Macedonia and later starting her professional and volunteering experience in the CSO sector, where she was part of the political youth organization- Young European Federalists (JEF).
Following her activities in the non-governmental sector, she continued working as a contractor for USAID based projects in North Macedonia. As a contractor she held the position as Grant Assistant, working on projects that support the government institutions, media and CSO sector. Prior to joining RYCO, she worked consultancy on topics such as CVE and capacity building for NGOs and private sector. Her main focus is international development, mainly EU integration, youth policies and civic engagement.
She speaks English and Spanish language.