Dr. Drasko Veselinovic

Dr. Draško Veselinovič is an Associate Professor of Financial Economics, and as of September 2014, the President of the Management Board of the Slovenian Business & Research Association (SBRA). Prior to that, for a period of two years, he was a professor and director of Gea College – The Faculty of Entrepreneurship, which is based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

In his extraordinarily active and fruitful career, he has held numerous senior management and top leadership positions in a variety of financial institutions. He began his career in 1982, firstly as a trainee at the Ljubljanska banka Združena banka, and assumed various roles and duties concerning international banking, until becoming the Assistant Director in 1989. In 1989, as the project manager – alongside fellow colleagues – he began establishing the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. It was formally established on 26 December 1989, becoming the first stock exchange in any of the former socialist states in the world. He held the function of the Director General of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange for 15 years. Thereafter, in 2004 for a period of four years, he led the Deželna banka Slovenije (with 400 employees and EUR 1 billion in total assets). At the begging of 2009, he became the CEO of Slovenia’s largest bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka (9,000 employees with EUR 20 billion in total assets). Between 2010 and 2012, he lead Slovenia’s and the region’s largest international private retail financial conglomerate KD Group (1,500 employees and approximately EUR 1 billion in total assets) dealing with all types of insurance, various investment funds, asset management and banking in 12 countries.

Throughout his entire professional career, he has also been academically active, both as a lecturer at numerous faculties as well as important institutions/congresses in Slovenia and abroad. To this day, he has published six books – scientific monographs in the field of finance, as well as many resonating articles in national and international journals. His extensive bibliography includes over 500 published works. As a hobby, he has also published several books of aphorisms.