Jovan Kovačić

East West Bridge Co-Founder and President

Former international reporter, a communications expert and policy advisor. Jovan was born in Belgrade in 1953 and educated in British, Serbian and US schools, MA in communications and media management. He worked for decades worldwide as a war correspondent for CNN, ABC, NPR, BBC and other major media. He ended his award-winning reporting career as a Reuter’s correspondent for ex-Yugoslavia covering the wars from Slovenia in 1991 to Kosovo in 1998. He joined the Office of the High Representative to Bosnia in 1998, as a political advisor in charge of reconstruction and negotiating the safe return of thousands of refugees and DPs. He also played an active role in the pro-democracy movement in Serbia.

Jovan was seconded to OSCE in 2001 in Belgrade as a Media Advisor, to streamline and develop major media outlets. He created and implemented a strategy for transforming the state TV, RTS, into a mainstream PBS.

More recently, Jovan formed his own company, GCA Global Communications Associates, which is helping regional governments, companies and political entities establish better working relationships with Euro-Atlantic structures and vice-versa. GCA, now with offices around the globe, is an affiliated partner to top world companies like Hill & Knowlton, Quinn Gillespie Associates, etc. In May 2010, on behalf of EWB, Jovan attended the Plenary Session of the Trilateral Commission in Dublin. It was the first such prestigious invitation by the Commission to an individual or organization from Serbia. He then attended the next three consecutive TC sessions, in Bucharest, Washington DC and The Hague this November. He is also a member of several world-wide foundations and think tanks.

Dejan Novaković

East West Bridge Co-Founder and Co-President for Research and Development

Dejan Novakovic, a senior government official, is a renown anticorruption expert. Born in Krusevac, Serbia, in 1972. Married. An economist, political analyst and expert in the area of protection of social integrity and anticorruption methodology.

He has been actively involved for almost two decades in creating the strategy to combat organized crime, corruption and terrorism in the country and the region.

Dejan is also a lecturer in expert seminars in the area of anticorruption methodology, international security and organized crime and author of several expert works in non-related areas like lobbying, copyrights and data protection.

Dejan is also a founder of Serbian Lobbyist Association and the president of SLA Supervisory Board. He has co-authored the Draft Law on Lobbying. He is one of the main creators of the concept of the East West Bridge and East West Bridge Foundation.

Lives and works in Belgrade.

Tahir Hasanović

East West Bridge Executive Director
In his decade long political career, Tahir Hasanovic has earned himself a reputation of a constructive, moderate and liberal politician, eager to mend bridges where others tear them down. His titles included President of the Students Association of the Belgrade University, President of the Youth Organization of Belgrade and the last youth "foreign minister" of ex-Yugoslavia in 1989. He was also a member of the League of Communists Party Central Committee in 1990, despite being only 30 years old at the time.

Tahir was one of the founders of New Democracy which evolved later into the Liberal party and its first Secretary General . He also held a vital post of Chairman of the Cadre Commission of the alliance of parties that formed DOS, which gave Serbia the first authentic democratic government led by the late Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in the early 90ties. Retired from active politics, Tahir today splits his time between his family: wife and two daughters, his philanthropic work and his duties as member of Board of Governors in several Serbian and international companies. He is very active in promoting a liberal and tolerant image of Serbia in the world and travels extensively for that purpose.

Tahir is one of only two people in the Balkans to have graduated from the famous  Dale Carnegie Leadership and Human Relations principal course in St Louis and is now a bona fide Dale Carnegie Coach. He is now successfully teaching others the human relations skills, confidence and enthusiasm, so badly needed in this part of the world.

Sir Ivor Roberts

President of Trinity College Oxford, and retired U.K. Ambassador, Sir Ivor was born in 1946 in Liverpool,educated at St. Mary's College, Crosby and at Keble College, Oxford (Open Gomm Scholar). He graduated in Modern Languages in 1968 and took his MA in 1972.

He entered the Diplomatic Service in 1968 and served in Lebanon, Paris, Luxembourg, Canberra, Vanuatu, Madrid, Belgrade, Dublin and Rome. He moved from Eastern European and Soviet Department (Balkans desk), then to Western European Department (German desk) and subsequently in European Integration Department, where he worked on the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy and the European Parliament.

From January 1998 to February 1999 he was on a sabbatical as a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford, writing and lecturing on his experiences in Yugoslavia. He retired from the Diplomatic Service in September 2006 on his election as the President of Trinity College. Sir Ivor is the editor of the sixth edition of Satow's Diplomatic Practice, a classic work first published 90 years ago. This is the first edition in 30 years, comprehensively expanded to accommodate the reality - that the world and diplomacy have changed almost beyond recognition -and it has already become a must read for any one even remotely connected to diplomacy or international politics.

Howard Graff

Howard L. Graff has had a several-decades long distinguished career in commercial finance and insurance. His expertise sought after, Howard has lectured across Europe, Asia, North and South America. Published by numerous chambers of commerce worldwide, he has written scores of articles concerning cash flow.

Howard's involvement facilitating international fraternal relations and helping cultivate the growth of youth organizations, such as DeMolay International, has earned him international recognition. He has been honored internationally for creating and raising significant amounts of money for charities that benefit both youth and senior citizens, and for his work in the ecumenical movement. An individual dedicated to family, he is married with two grown children and a granddaughter. As he proudly points out, Howard is a long-time resident of a Chicago suburb, Skokie, Illinois, USA. where he has served as a Village Commissioner.

Petar Stoyanov

President of the Republic of Bulgaria 1997 - 2002

President of the Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation

Petar Stoyanov was President of Bulgaria from 1997 till 2002.
He won the 1996 presidential election as a candidate of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF).

From 1992 to 1993 Mr. Stoyanov was Deputy Minister of Justice in the first non-communist (UDF) government of Bulgaria since 1944.

In 1994, as the holder of a doctorate in law, he was elected as a member of the 37th National Assembly in Bulgaria and in 1995 he was elected Deputy Chairman of the UDF. Petar Stoyanov is an active and passionate promoter of democracy and European ideals.

In 2002 he founded the “Petar Stoyanov Centre for Political Dialogue” in Sofia. He is member of several different international associations, e.g the Clinton’s Global Initiative, the Board of Global Fairness Initiative, the Judging Committee of the European Business Awards, the International Advisory Board of the American Bar Association, Honorary co-chair of the World Justice Project and is a member of the European Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission. Additionally, he has been the winner of numerous awards like the Anti-Defamation League’s Courage to Care Award, the Annual Award of the Association of the Russian Lawyers, etc.

H.R.H. Princess Elisabeth

Princess Elizabeth is the daughter of Prince Paul, the Prince Regent of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga of Greece.  She is second cousin to the Prince of Wales, Queen Sophie of Spain and the great great granddaughter of Karageorge, a near-mythic hero who started the first uprising against the Turks in 1804.  On her mother’s side she descends from Empress Catherine the Great of Russia. 

Banished at an early age from Yugoslavia to Kenya with her parents and two brothers, they all lived under British house arrest for three years.  From there they went to South Africa for five more years before finally returning to Europe in search of a new home, first to Greece and then Switzerland and Paris.  Three marriages, three children, several continents and half a century later she finally returned to Yugoslavia in 1987, the first member of her family to do so since the war despite a communist national law forbidding entry to anyone of the dynasty.  From then on, having re-learned her native language, she defied the ban regularly and engaged herself fully to education, publishing and charity work. She published a book in 1990 called “Prince Paul, Britain’s much Maligned Friend”.

Next she created a non-political, not for profit Foundation at end of 1990 called the “Princess Elizabeth Foundation” to address the brewing inter-ethnic tension.  

Every year she organized fund raisers in New York and accompanied shipments of medicines and medical supplies back home. In 2000 in Belgrade she formed a new foundation called ‘Serbian Foundation’ which is dedicated to promoting young and talented artists from Serbia. A regular resident of Belgrade since 2002. She has written four children’s books and has had 100 book promotions during four years across Serbia.  At each event, part of the proceeds goes to the local hospital or kindergarten or playground.