Citizenship: Croatian
Foreign languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Successful international negotiator with longtime experience
Representing before international and national authorities
Team leader
Accomplished manager in the audiovisual sector and public administration
Ability for combining strategic vision and pragmatic approach in problem solving
WORK EXPERIENCE
2012 – President of the executive board of AGICOA, Geneva, Switzerland
As a society of audiovisual producers and associations for collective rights management, AGICOA negotiates with the platforms for retransmission and collects and distributes royalties for transmission to producers, and sometimes to authors.
My responsibilities include presiding over executive board meetings, developing members’ consensus on strategic and operative priorities, leading negotiations, supervising organization management, foreign representations and legal activities such as successful cooperation with the EU institutions concerning a draft of the EU regulations about television, with close coordination with European organizations of producers, authors and performers.
1995 – 2016 President and managing director, Europe/International Motion Picture Association (MPA)
MPA unifies six big American audiovisual companies. Main operating areas include lobbying for certain questions of interest from areas of policies relevant in national and EU levels, content security and litigation.
My responsibilities included: The initial focus was on repositioning and reconstruction of the European part of the organization. In cooperation with the members of MPA, I assembled a team (twenty employees in Brussels). We established strategic priorities and achieved them in close coordination with national partner organizations, local company representatives and foreign advisors.
Last year I was President and Global International Policy Coordinator, which also included Asia-Pacific and Latin America countries. I left MPA to join my family in Croatia, after taking part in the selection of my heir as head of the European office.
1985 – 1995 Office of the United States Trade Representative
1993 – 1995 Deputy trade representative for Europe, Africa and Middle East
1993 Deputy trade representative for environmental issues
1991 – 1993 Chief of European sector
1988 – 1991 Trade representative in the US mission in the EC
1985 – 1988 Chairman for the WTO
As a trade representative of the US in the EC, I was responsible for the negotiations for joining Portugal and Spain to the EC. A significant project was also preparing and implementation of the first USA strategy for foreign trade and environment protection. In 1993 I was named a deputy trade representative for Europe. My responsibilities included preparing and implementing US trade policies, a role of the main negotiator in a series of multilateral (WTO, OECD), bilateral and negotiations with the EC. My accomplishments during those ten years led to an offer to transfer to the private sector (MPA).
1980 – 1985 Advisor, US Department of Commerce
I was an official for export branding, after which I started working on customs issues. I led international negotiations about a new trade classification scheme, including delicate conversion of international customs rates, and confirmation in the US Congress. The project led to a position in the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
EDUCATION
1977 – 1979 Master’s degree, international affairs, Georgetown University, Washington
1973 – 1976 Bachelor’s degree, economics and political sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison
1970 – 1973 Marquette University High School, Milwaukee, USA
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
2003 The Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić for special merits in culture
1994 USTR – Kelley Award for outstanding achievement and contribution to the team’s successes
1991 US State Department: Outstanding Achievement Award
2016 MPA: Special award for contribution to the whole organization
