Dr. Sanja Popovic Pantic

Dr. Sanja Popovic Pantic   

She is Leading innovation in SME sector and female entrepreneurship. She is the President of the biggest national association of female entrepreneurs in Serbia running since 1998. During that time, nearly 200 projects have been realized in strengthening female entrepreneurial initiatives, projects, start up and established companies. She obtained PhD in female entrepreneurship in 2013. at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, Serbia.

She has been chairing Woman’s Entrepreneurship Group within the EU funded project Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) since May 2015. She is the author of two books based on the research of female entrepreneurship in Serbia viz.: “From vulnerable to sustainable group” – how to overcome poverty among women through self-employment in 2007 , “Sustainability of female businesses”, which was published in 2010. She has been engaged also as UN Women expert in their project “Advancing women’s economic and social rights in Serbia.”

Currently, she is engaged as the Sustainability expert by Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) which is the appointment within the EEN’s new expert group on sustainability support to SMEs. She completed a few comparative studies in female entrepreneurship, including the latest one relates to SME’s access to supply chain in the Balkan countries. She is promoting actively gender equality in supply chains. US Embassy in Serbia nominated her for The World of Difference 100 Award, which has been delivered to Sanja by The International Alliance for Women in 2012. In the same year, she has been awarded with the national award in entrepreneurship development by “PLANETA BIZNIS”. “She has been awarded by the Ministry of Economy in Serbia for the Special contribution to female entrepreneurship in Serbia. She has also been honored by the regional prize “Creators for centuries” in 2015 and “The best businesswoman of the year” in 2017 delivered by the noted national Foundation “Captain Miša Anastasijević“.

She adds in an interview, “I think it is high time to ask ourselves what we can do to place our skills, knowledge and experience, even if only briefly, in the function of promoting something that certainly won’t bring us money, but will undoubtedly improve our quality of life and bring smiles back to our faces”.