We continue with AmCham Talents Alumni mentoring program in which candidates have found a mentor who will support further career development with their advice and experience. The AmCham Talents Alumni mentoring program lasts one year, with meetings approximately once a month for an hour to an hour and a half, virtually or live. Mentee suggests e-mailing a topic a week in advance, asking questions, observations, or general discussion points so the mentor can prepare, and sending feedback after the meeting.

This year's generation can apply on the condition that they complete the program in December 2024 and begin mentoring in January 2025.

Enrollments with CV and motivation letter are open until September 30 and you can enroll by email at event@amcham.hr.

Hrvoje Badovinac

Hrvoje Badovinac is a medical technology consultant and former Regional Director of Medtronic Adriatic experienced in various skills crucial for business success, such as leadership, project management, market development, talent management, and mentoring. After graduating from the Faculty of Economics University of Zagreb, he started his career in Banex company and worked for Medtronic in Vienna, Austria. In 1996 he opened Medtronic’s representative office in Zagreb which over the years of his leadership became the center for the Adriatic Region.

Irena Bajan Varat

Irena is an accomplished HR leader with over 20 years of experience in multinational corporations across various local and regional roles. Currently, she is the HR Director at the Museum of Illusions, where she has been leading global HR processes since February 2024. Her key responsibilities include enhancing HR process efficiency, overseeing HR operations, leading a team of HR specialists, recruiting, and integrating new employees, providing strategic support to the executive team in leadership development, establishing talent development programs, and promoting corporate culture.

From 2017 to 2024, she was the Country Manager and Regional HR Leader at 3M. As the legal representative of the Croatian branch, she was responsible for the legal compliance of local organizations, building the company brand, and supporting internal communications. In her regional role, she managed a team of 10 and was responsible for HR, administration, finance, and corporate communications across five countries.

Key achievements include successfully leading organizational transition, implementing global flexibility policies in compliance with local laws, and securing a global grant for STEM education for youth in Croatia. Irena holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Zagreb and is certified in Hogan Assessment Systems.

Nikola Dujmović

Nikola, a co-founder of Span, has served as its director since the company’s inception. His engineering background fuels his ability to identify potential for growth and advancement in every endeavor. Notably, Nikola possesses a keen talent for recognizing and forecasting emerging technological trends. His straightforward business philosophy hinges on belief in one’s work and adherence to the principle of social productivity. This involves providing support and contributing more to the community than what is taken from it. Nikola understands the significance of investing in people and their skills. At Span, employees continually expand their knowledge by working with cutting-edge technologies, which they then leverage to effectively address clients’ business challenges. As the architect of Span’s international expansion, Nikola was instrumental in forging the company’s partnership with Microsoft. This alliance catapulted Span to the forefront as a leading partner of Microsoft in the region. Owing to his vision and determined efforts, Span now stands as a leading IT company in Croatia and a prestigious exporter of software and services.

Tomislav Šlat

General Management and business development professional with more than 30 years of international sales and marketing experience in Central & Eastern Europe, with strong leadership and managerial skills, lean management, and intercultural experience, demonstrated through a high level of responsibility, strong self-motivation, commitment, excellent inter-personal and cross-cultural skills, and proven "can-do" attitude. Substantial achievements in managing diversity, attracting and developing talents, and creating highly engaged winning organizations with strong ethical conduct values. Experienced in project and business process management (Six Sigma) as well as Mergers & Acquisitions project management. President of AmCham from 2000-2002 and currently Secretary General of Foreign Investors Council in Croatia. Until 2021 Senior Country Leader Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia for 3M.

Marin Tadić

Marin started his career in management by working at Reuters GmbH in Austria. In 1994 he got the opportunity to establish and develop Reuters offices and businesses in Slovenia, Croatia and BiH. During the next few years, he successfully developed a significant number of projects in the banking sector (Forex segment) in these countries.

From 1998 to 2002 Marin took on the role of Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard Croatia and territory responsibility for Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Albania. During that period he had progressively developed all segments of HP's business like the enterprise computing segment, printing and imagining and desk computing segment. In March 2002 Marin took over the position of Managing Director of Oracle Croatia Ltd. From 2002 he was continuously and persistently building a team of experts ready to respond to complex demands in the enterprise B2B segment, primarily with financial, telco, retail and public sector customers. In 2016 Marin took over the new responsibility for the Adriatic region – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia and from 2019 until 2023, Marin is in the position of Cluster Leader, with responsibility for Croatia, Slovakia, Serbia and Hungary.

Marin holds a Master's degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Department of Telecommunications and IT, with a thesis project around Internet protocols. Since 2005 he has held an Executive MBA accomplished at Ecole Nationale de Ponts et Chaussées (ENPC) of International Management in Paris, and the University of Edinburgh Management School in the UK.

Experiences of participants:

Željka Bučec: "If you want to advance in your career, I strongly recommend applying for the AmCham Talents Alumni mentoring program. This program is a perfect opportunity to reflect on your development and enrich your experience. My mentor Hrvoje Badovinac inspired me with his perseverance, honesty, experience, and people-loving nature. He helped me to develop a new setup of skills with his advice and experience. It was very important for me, in my role as a people manager, to understand the organizational process and ways to support others because this role comes with its own set of challenges. And at the end of the day, we all need a breather, a different perspective, and an opportunity for introspection. A mentor can help and guide you in the right direction with your career."

Nikša Glogoški:"It was a great pleasure to participate in AmCham Talents Alumni Mentoring Program. I had an opportunity to connect in an informal way with a great professional of huge experience Mr. Nikola Dujmovic. It was very informative and inspiring to discuss subjects that were interesting to me, so I thank my mentor for this opportunity. Additionally, I was positively surprised by the SPAN team's openness and willingness to share their experience and knowledge since my mentor arrange to meet the Heads of a few departments."

Igor Prodan: "Signing up for the AmCham Talents Alumni mentoring program is a must-have for anyone who wants to actively work on own growth, both business and personal. The program enables one-on-one consultations with leading experts in their field, who selflessly share their experiences with the participants. I can freely say that the mentoring by Mr. Tomislav Šlat was extremely professional, with a complete focus on the transfer of advice and experiences that will surely help me in further life challenges."