Marin Zovko appointed to the Management Board of Ina, but negotiations with owners to improve the management system full of ‘holes’ are yet to follow

Today, the Government made a decision to propose Marin Zovko, a member of the Management Board of Plinacro, to the Supervisory Board of Ina to appoint him to the Management Board of that company for six months, until new members of the Management Board are selected through a competition. He is the third government proposal after the previous decision to appoint Professor Hrvoje Šimović from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb and Miroslav Skalicki, the owner of the company Peti kvadrant, to the Management Board of Ina.

Those who know Zovko say he is a great expert in the gas business and that he will certainly be able to contribute to the domestic oil company in that sector. He is a pleasant collaborator, says one of his business acquaintances, he was once the president of the Management Board of Plinacro and believes he is a good choice for the new member of the Management Board of Ina. However, another interlocutor, who does not dispute Zovko’s qualities, says that generally, whoever takes that position is making a mistake primarily for themselves since they would not be absolved from any shortcomings in future work given the management system that has many 'holes'.

– Our managers in Ina are in a precarious position, the system is arranged in such a way that behind the Hungarian members of the Management Board stands Mol, while behind the Croatian members practically no one. Any illegal action, regardless of whether they are involved or not, will cost them their careers in Ina. Of course, if the management system remains as it is – says our interlocutor.

By the way, on the last day of May this year, the Assembly of Plinacro awarded Zovko a new four-year mandate as a member of the Management Board of that company, which he will, as things stand now, leave for at least six months, the time it will take to announce the competition and select new members of the management of the domestic oil company.

International career of Skalicki

When it comes to Skalicki, our third interlocutor from the energy sector, who had the opportunity to work with him, says that he is not a bad solution at all because he is convinced that the man knows that sector. However, one of our energy experts is not sure how quality a solution Skalicki is for a member of the Management Board of Ina. Skalicki is the owner of the company Peti kvadrant, which deals with business consulting in the energy sector: oil, gas, and renewable energy sources and represents companies. He founded it 14 years ago after spending 20 years in the multinational company Shell.

As stated in his resume published on the website of Peti kvadrant, Skalicki worked 'in an international environment as a general director and department director', but it does not specify which and 'has extensive experience in managing business at the international level, corporate governance, project management, and business strategy development'.

This graduate mining engineer (graduated from the Faculty of Mining, Geology, and Petroleum in Zagreb) 'has successfully led international teams for years and has often been a mentor to younger talented colleagues', and he also completed a specialist study in corporate governance and strategy at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb.

However, our interlocutor, a good connoisseur of the situation in the energy sector, believes that these are not sufficient references for a member of the Management Board of a company like Ina.

– Personally, I would never propose him for a member of the Management Board, although I really have nothing against the man, because I am not sure that he played a significant role in Shell. Although, who knows, maybe in the end, he will prove to be a good solution – says the interlocutor.

In addition, he says he worked in the lubricants sector at Shell (which is not mentioned in the resume published on his company's website), which is not a reference for a domestic energy company. This detail is also emphasized by another interlocutor who remembers Skalicki as a solid manager at Shell, but managing the lubricants sector or the oil and gas business are two different worlds, emphasizes the second interlocutor.

– Furthermore, it is questionable how his company has performed since he left Shell back in 2008. Because you know what, these three appointments are for only six months until members of the Management Board are selected through competitions. If someone agrees to be a member of the Management Board for six months, that is, agrees to go into an uncertain area, and thus necessarily neglects their company, then it should be checked whether their managerial skills are the best for that function. Although I remember him, to repeat, as a solid manager at Shell – says the second interlocutor.

Šimović in unharvested grapes

Zovko is a different story, he adds, because he has somewhere to return to and it is probably an agreement between the Government and him that he will return to Plinacro if things go wrong in Ina. The same story, he assumes, is with Professor Hrvoje Šimović from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb. He also has a job waiting for him at the faculty, but his good acquaintance believes he made a mistake by accepting the position of a member of the Management Board of Ina.

– He is a wonderful man, an excellent expert in finance and an analyst, an excellent professor, but he is definitely not a good solution for a member of the Management Board of Ina. He has mostly spent his working life at the faculty, before that at Croatia banka, and this is practically his first job in the real sector. And immediately for a member of the Management Board! I think he will not be a good member of the Management Board because he has neither the experience nor the knowledge for such a job, and in my opinion, that is a complete mistake – says the interlocutor.

It would have been much better, he adds, if he had been appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of Ina. According to him, that position is tailor-made for him in that company, and this way he will fall into unharvested grapes.

How sensitive the position of a member of the Management Board of Ina is is also indicated by the fact that Zovko was appointed as the third member after the previous chief advisor for external subjects of Ina, Emanuel Kovačić, withdrew citing personal reasons. However, our interlocutor from Ina says that the Government contacted several other candidates before Kovačić (thus, he was not the Government's first option), but all of them thanked for that offer and declined it. The interlocutor from Ina did not want to speak about the names of those who withdrew even before Kovačić, and it probably also prompted him to change his mind and refuse the appointment.

The Government had a very hard time finding candidates for new members of the Management Board of Ina, but this is just the beginning because it is no secret that exhausting negotiations with the Hungarian side are yet to come to raise the control and management system in Ina to a higher level.