Danica Purg leaves IEDC-Bled after 40 years: the end of an era

Professor Danica Purg, founder and long-time president and dean of the IEDC-Bled School of Management, will retire at the end of February and hand over the management of the school she built from the ground up. After forty years at the helm of one of the most prestigious business schools in Central and Eastern Europe, Purg concludes one of the longest and most influential chapters in regional management education.

IEDC – Bled School of Management was established in 1986 at the initiative of the Slovenian business community, as the first management school in the region that was independent of universities and dedicated exclusively to executive education. Under her leadership, the school became a globally recognized institution: it was ranked among the 100 most innovative business schools in the world by the Aspen Institute, and was particularly known for its innovative approach that combined management with art and ethical leadership. More than 6,000 graduates from 75 countries have gone through its programs.

At the same time, Purg founded CEEMAN (International Association for Management Development in Dynamic Societies), an international association that today brings together around 200 business schools from around the world. She will remain at the helm of that organization even after leaving IEDC.

Let us recall that Prof. Dr. Mislav Ante Omazić, who took over the position of president of IEDC back in 2024, will continue to lead the school, and in addition, he is a full professor at the Department of Organization and Management at the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, having obtained his doctorate in 2007, part of his doctoral studies was spent at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in the USA.

He has collaborated with a number of international organizations and companies, and is also known to the public as a member of the supervisory boards of Hrvatska poštanska banka and Čakovečki mlinovi. He once emphasized that the strength of IEDC lies in its ability to lead through change and that the goal of the school is not only to educate leaders but also to shape the world they will lead.