Vedrana Jelušić Kašić has been appointed as the new director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for Croatia and will take over the management of the EBRD’s Zagreb office from the outgoing director Zsuzsanna Hargitai on June 3, the EBRD announced today.
Hargitai, who has led the EBRD’s Zagreb office since August 2010, is taking on a new role and will work in London as the new director for strategy and coordination of institutional policy. In this position, she will be responsible for leading and coordinating the preparation of strategies and the development of institutional policy products, according to the EBRD.
Vedrana Jelušić Kašić began her career at the EBRD’s London headquarters in 1998, and in 2005 she moved to the Zagreb office, taking over the management of the bank’s activities in the agribusiness sector in Croatia and neighboring countries of the Western Balkans. Shortly thereafter, she became the regional coordinator for all agribusiness activities of the bank in Southeast Europe.
Before joining the EBRD, Jelušić Kašić worked at the Italian Central Depository Agency for Securities in Milan, Merrill Lynch in Boston, the Croatian National Bank, and Raiffeisen Bank in Zagreb.
She graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb and obtained a master’s degree in international economics and finance from Brandeis University in Boston.
Zsuzsanna Hargitai has been with the EBRD since 1992 and has led several offices in the region for over 16 years, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Croatia, and Hungary.
The EBRD’s statement on the appointment of the new director for Croatia also emphasizes that Croatia is a key country for the EBRD, with total investments amounting to €2.75 billion since the bank’s inception.
