BPW News Women of the week Marija Stevanovic, Woman of the Week (71)
Who is Marija Stevanovic?
“My first contact with the BPW was in Brussels when I met Mrs. Klein Edita from Montenegro, who is a member there and that gave me the basic details, and sent me to the president of BPW in Serbia. So I quickly became a member of BPW Nis and member of the Executive Committee for making of projects. We are now working together on VI Forum of the Network of the Danube Countries in November 2011 in Serbia. In addition to mutual introduction and possible agreements on new projects, questions that I always come back are: the position of women in society, domestic violence, addiction sicknesses and so on.” Marija Stevanovic
Marija Stevanovic, a BPW member from Svilajnac, Serbia, was one of the best students of the Belgrade University and currently is at the end of their doctoral studies program in biotechnology.
Marija comes from a poor country that can’t find its chance and place in the world food production, so most of her efforts is are directed precisely into the development of that sector, in a professional and business sense. After experience in private and public sector (five years in the municipality as chief), Marija realized that it’s a pity to work locally and that she could help many people in Serbia with her experience, so she established her consultancy.
Her agency is involved in the creation of strategic documents, studies and projects that aim to draw funds from domestic and foreign sources of funding for various clients. Last year, together with collaborators, Marija has provided more than 10 million Euros in credit, a few million Euros in grants to customers and has done a lot of different development projects. They have done many projects related to organic production. Since December Marija has worked as a consultant for USAID for the program of cleaner production. Just this February she was honored with nine other women to be appointed an ambassador of women entrepreneurship by the Serbia Chamber of Congress. Marija’s interests are quite wide, but are based on the development and improvement of standards in Serbia.