Welcome to new executive director and board of directors
A new year is in full swing and there have been some exciting new changes at Bosnia & Herzegovina Futures Foundation, a new board of directors and new executive director.
Who are the new board members?
Alma Dautbegovic, Chair of the Board (Oslo, Norway)
Alma was educated in Norway and is a senior manager focused on strategy and transformation at Telia, a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator. She has years of experience dealing with a variety of business responsibilities and management roles. She has significant international experience that has built the career in innovative and cross-functional environments. She is a leader of complex and high-performing senior level teams working on key strategic projects and programs. She has previously been a mentor and educator within our foundation.
Miralem Salihovic, Board member (Cupertino, California, USA)
Miralem was educated in Bosnia & Herzegovina and for many years was an active music producer and hip-hop artist. He turned his music career into his dream job and today is the head of solutions & technology at Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalization. He has been with Apple for nearly 10 years and during this period has overseen many major technology projects. He has been a long standing mentor and speaker with the foundation.
Nihad Ferhatovic (Sarajevo, BiH)
Nihad was educated in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Sweden. Currently he is an embedded software engineer at TTTech Auto Banja Luka. He has extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector, having held positions in several organisations throughout Bosnia & Herzegovina. He is an alumni of our foundation and has previously as a student been a liaison between the board and scholars. He is the youngest member of our board and represents our commitment to empowering young leaders and staying connected with our students & young professionals.
Azra Saric (Sarajevo, BiH)
Azra was educated in the UK and spent a significant period of time abroad before returning to BiH. She is a dynamic professional with vast experience across diverse industries, currently serving as the Country Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina at HTEC Group. She is committed to contributing to positive change in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Azra’s roles focus on engagement management, creative problem-solving, change management, customer experience, and organizational leadership, while fostering a collaborative work environment. Her diverse experience has solidified her belief that genuine curiosity about people drives everything she does—understanding how they communicate, respond, behave, develop, and change. Previously she has been a long standing mentor and educator with our foundation.
Dragana Marinkovic (Seattle, Washington, USA)
Dragana was educated in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, United States. Currently she is a Senior Product Manager - Technical at Amazon, Seattle, USA where she leveraging machine learning to build transformative products for Amazon's 1.5m global workforce. Dragana has for profit and not-for-profit experience across numerous sectors and has worked in Europe, Africa and the USA. She has experience around HR, business management and operations. For over 5 years she led an innovative tech-driven sustainable forestry company revolutionizing the wood industry in Kenya. She has been a long standing ambassador and mentor with the foundation.
Who is the new executive director?
Selma Begovic (Sarajevo, BiH)
Selma is a graduate of the United World College in Mostar after which she studied accounting and business management at Westminster College in Missouri, USA Selma has over 10 years of project management experience in diverse industries, such as IT, fintech, and economic development in the USA and Bosnia & Herzegovina. She is PMP certified and has extensive knowledge of project management tools and techniques, which will be very useful in her new role at BHFF. She worked at Marvelsoft for nearly 4 years as office manager and business development manager. In her most recent role she managed a portfolio of 40+ investment contracts and 20+ projects worth over 1 million EUR in IT and outsourcing at MarketMakers Project BiH, a leading economic development initiative. She collaborated with 80+ partners and experts to improve the ecosystem and market functions and contributed to the creation of 4600 new jobs and the development of 5 different policies and legislative reforms. She also initiated and supported the growth of the company academy model of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling the labour force to meet the job-market skills demand.
Thank you to the 2022-2023 board of directors and executive director.
During our celebration night on December 16th, in front a big group of our donors, mentors, speakers and friends, the foundation thanked our outgoing board of directors and executive director for the enormous work over the years. We would like to use this opportunity to thank them again. Thank you board members Milan Kusmuk (Chair of the board), Sladjana Cosic (Vice-Chair), Haris Aranutovic (Treasurer), Momcilo Amovic (Secretary), Timur Hukic (Board Member) and executive director Majda Mujanovic Babovic. Without you we would not be where we are today!
