State Secretaries and Minister's Assistants

Dr Veljko Kovačević, State Secretary

He was born on June 10, 1980 in Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade. He completed specialist and doctoral studies in the fields of transport insurance, maritime law, and inland navigation law at the Faculty of Law of Union University.

He has published several scientific articles in the field of maritime law, as well as analyses of certain legal institutes of the Anglo-American legal system.

He was a lecturer by invitation at Union University Faculty of Law from 2018 to 2021.

He completed executive Senior Training Program on Public-Private Partnerships and Project Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He worked in the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure from 2008 to 2022, where he served as assistant minister from 2016 to 2022.

He has been working in the Ministry of Mining and Energy since November 2022, where he was appointed State Secretary in September 2023.

He speaks English. He is the father of two boys.

 

Stefan Srbljanović, State Secretary

He was born in Priboj in 1989, where he completed primary and secondary school. In 2008, he entered the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, where he graduated from the Department of Political Sciences. He successfully attended numerous seminars and trainings, such as the PolitiKAS - educational program for selected young leaders, organized by the Belgrade Open School and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. From 2017, he was employed at EPS, Priboj Plant, and from June 2022 at EDS, DP Belgrade as a senior specialist in the Market Support and Loss Reduction Department. In the 2020 parliamentary elections, he was elected as a Member of Parliament in the Twelfth Parliamentary Convocation from the list of Aleksandar Vučić - For Our Children. He is a member of the Center for Social Stability from Novi Sad and the Svetozar Miletić Foundation, at whose political academy he was the top attendee in that year.

He is a member of the Main Board of the Serbian Progressive Party.

He is a husband and father.


Radoš Popadić, MSc - Acting Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy – Electricity Department

Results-oriented MSc with a combined knowledge of engineering and economics, and more than 25 years of business experience in management positions in the public, private, and banking sectors.

Born in 1973, he graduated from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade in 1997 from the Department of Energy, and received his master's degree in 2003 from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences in Belgrade, majoring in Operations Management.

He has published dozens of scientific and professional papers and is the co-author of the book "Knowledge for Successful Business". He has conducted numerous trainings and educational sessions in Serbia and abroad on topics such as energy, company business plans, personnel development, efficient and effective corporate culture, and the improvement of business mentality.

He began his business career in 1998 at JP PTT Srbija, where he was one of the founders of the Post Express Service. In 2004, he transitioned from the position of the Quality Department Manager to the private company MR Sistem as Executive Director for Operations. From 2008 to 2019, he worked in the banking sector at several foreign banks, often in roles such as Head of the Business Financing and Project Financing Department. In 2019, he moved from his position as Director of the Department for Business with Large Legal Entities at Direktna Bank to become Director of the CPS company.

To the Ministry of Mining and Energy, he brings experience related to a systemic approach to managing companies and investment projects in the fields of energy and construction, as well as corporate finance and banking for large, medium and state-owned legal enterprises, financial and other key business indicators.

He arrives at the position of Acting Assistant to the Minister of Mining and Energy – Electricity Department from his role as Advisor to the Minister of Mining and Energy for the Power Sector.

He speaks English and is married with a daughter.

 

Dr Ivan Janković, Acting Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy for Geology and Mining

 

 

Maja Vukadinović, Acting Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy For Energy Efficiency And Climate Change

Born in Belgrade, she completed elementary school, graduated from XIII Belgrade High School before earning her degree from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade. At the same faculty, she completed her master's studies in management in public procurement, conducted in cooperation with the Tor Vergata Faculty from Rome. She has passed the state professional exam and the exam for public procurement officer. She started her professional career in GO Čukarica in property and legal affairs. Subsequently, she worked in the City Administration of Belgrade in the Body for Centralized Public Procurement, where she performed public procurement duties as an expert associate and later as head of the Department for Public Procurement and Technical Documentation. For a time, she worked in a consulting firm specializing in public procurement, where she held the position of director. She then joined the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, where she served as Head of the Public Procurement Group, and later at the Directorate for Construction Land and Construction of Belgrade JP, where she was director of the Public Procurement Department. She has been with the Ministry of Mining and Energy since February 2023.

 

 

Jovana Joksimović, Assistant Minister of Mining and Energy for International Cooperation and European Integration

She was born in 1982 in Šabac. She graduated in architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Belgrade, and following that she gained the academic title of Specialist in Project Management at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the same University.

She is a member of the Serbian Chamber of Engineers and a licensed engineer, an accredited implementer of the professional development programmes in public administration of the National Academy for Public Administration and a construction expert witness with the Ministry of Justice.

During her previous fifteen years of professional work experience, she worked on monitoring the EU accession process of the Republic of Serbia, coordinated the programming of EU-funded projects in the fields of energy, transport, environment protection, digital and social infrastructure, participated in the preparation of strategic documents, agreements on grants and agreements on bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as well as in the preparation of design and technical documentation for infrastructure projects. She actively participated in monitoring the accession process of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, in the programming processes under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance of the EU (IPA) by managing the entire project cycle within the technical secretariat of the National IPA Coordinator, as well as in the coordination of multi-user programs of the Western Investment Framework (WBIF).

She joined the Ministry of Mining and Energy bringing her extensive professional experiences based on having previously worked in the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of European Integration, but also based on practical experience in the field of control and supervision of construction works which she gained at the Institute of Transportation "CIP", i.e. as a licensed engineer in the construction sector.

To the previous position - Coordinator for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Department for Planning and Programming of EU Funds and Development Assistance in the Fields of Energy, Environment Protection, Transport, Social and Digital Infrastructure within the Ministry of European Integration, she was appointed in October 2017, where she managed and organized the work of the Department and actively cooperated with authorised institutions of the Republic of Serbia, EU institutions, the donor community and international financial institutions on investment planning, including the coordination of planning, identification and prioritization of programs for financing through various funds, as well as active bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

She holds numerous certificates from completed trainings and seminars, especially in the areas of international cooperation, management of EU structural funds, financial and economic analysis of infrastructure projects, etc.

She speaks English, and also has a working knowledge of German and Russian.