People

Kori Udovički – President of the Governing Board and Chief Economist

Kori Udovički is founder and heads the Belgrade think-tank Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES). CEVES is an independent think-and-do-tank devoted to advancing Serbia’s economic recovery, democratic consolidation, and convergence with the European Union. She is also current member of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs.

Previously she was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (2014-2016) in the Government of Serbia. In this position she launched comprehensive reforms of the public administration including the design and adoption of an employment control and public administration sizing mechanism and the adoption of long postponed regulatory packages for the general administrative procedure, the inspections system, public administration wages, and civil service at the local level.

In Serbia she also served as Minister of Energy and Mines (2002-2003), and as the first woman Governor of the National Bank of Serbia (2003-2004). In 2007-2012, she served as Assistant Secretary General of the UN, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau for Europe and CIS of UNDP. Prior to joining UNDP, she founded the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN) in Serbia, and established and edited its flagship publication, the Quarterly Monitor of Economic Trends and Policies in Serbia. From 1993 to 2001 Mrs. Udovički worked as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund.

Ms Udovički holds a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University and a B.A. from the Economics Faculty of the University of Belgrade.

 

Kori Udovički

Members of the Governing board

Natalija Novta

Natalija Novta is an economist at the Research Department, International Monetary Fund.She serves on the Governing Board of CEVES in her personal capacity and does not represent the views of the IMF. Ms. Novta has contributed research for the IMF World Economic Outlook, Fiscal Monitor and the Western Hemisphere Regional Economic Outlook, as well as worked on IMF programs and surveillance.

She hold a PhD in economics from New York University, and a BA in economics from Harvard University. She has previously worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Ministry of Finance in Serbia. Her area of expertise is economic development and policy analysis.

Pavle Medić – Deputy Chief Economist

Pavle Medic is the Deputy Chief Economist at the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES). As Deputy Chief Economist, he is engaged at managing and developing projects and project proposals, as well as selecting and training of employees. He primarily covers the topics of labor market, private sector development, public finances, inequality, as well as various types of impact assessment analyzes.

He started his professional career with a summer internship at the National Bank of Serbia in the Sector for Monetary Operations in 2018, after which has been employed in CEVES. He gained substantial experience working as an independent consultant for leading international and domestic organizations – the World Bank, the International Labor Organization, UNICEF, The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit, the Union of Employers of Serbia and similar. Since September 2021, he is engaged at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, where he works as a teaching associate for the subjects Principles of Economics and Financial Markets.

He graduated in Economic Analysis and Policy at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, and is currently in the process of writing a master’s thesis in the International Masters in Quantitative Finance (IMQF) program at the same faculty. He is also completing a master’s degree at the Law and Economics Module of the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.

Lazar Ivanović- Economist

Lazar Ivanović is a Junior Research Associate at the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES). His principal professional interests include fiscal policy, industrial policy, and labor market in the context of economic development.

Lazar started his career as an Advisory intern at the consulting company Crowe RS. There he assisted and participated in corporate finance projects, including mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, financial modeling, and valuation. Subsequently, Lazar worked as an intern at the Institute of Economic Sciences (IEN) where he had the opportunity to write his first scientific paper “Analysis of the main macroeconomic indicators in the function of stability of Western Balkan countries” which was published by IEN.

Lazar holds a Master’s degree in International Economics from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Belgrade. In addition, Lazar holds a C2 level certificate in Advanced English from the Cambridge Assessment English.

Ivona Janović – Administrative Assistant

Ivona Janović is Administrative Assistant at the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES). She is responsible for recording the accounts and payment of matured liabilities, managing cash register, making travel orders for employees, keeping records of the presence of employees, annual breaks and paying salaries.

She also manages correspondence, e-mail and phone calls in daily work, communicates with the IT sector and accounting in order to solve all administrative tasks. Ivona provides administrative assistance to the team in the implementation of projects. She graduated in 2014 at Megatrend University, Faculty of Business Studies, Department of International Marketing.