5. Key Activities Implemented

Ms. Nataša Kozlica described her career path in green technologies. Before becoming a senior expert associate for the preparation and implementation of EU projects at the Regional Development Agency of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, she gained experience in the green technology sector in agriculture, entrepreneurship, tourism, public administration, etc. Ms. Kozlica emphasized that green technologies are today key to sustainable food production, energy independence of rural communities, environmental protection, digitalization and innovation, and social and economic development through EU projects in rural areas. Ms. Kozlica decided to go for green technologies because she likes the combination of technology and social responsibility, and the first major project that convinced her to fully dedicate herself to this activity was USAID. Some of the other projects whose conceptual originator was Ms. Kozlica include: Educational Winter Garden, winter edition of Radenska mineralna voda (Radenska sparkling water) for 2024, Smart Bike in Delnice, A green place with irresistible potential – Gorski Kotar 2030 and School 5.0. The Europe Direct Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Center began operating on January 1, 2026, and its mission is to bring the EU closer to citizens, ensure understanding of its policies, and encourage active participation in democratic processes. 

In November 2024, the Thematic Working Group “Women in Rural Areas” was established, with the aim of proposing changes to the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027 aimed at recognizing the role of women in rural development and agriculture, encouraging non-formal education focused on topics needed by women in rural areas, implementing networking activities and empowering women in rural areas to participate in public policies and entrepreneurship, making gender equality a relevant topic in agriculture, connecting institutions – stakeholders in rural development and measuring gender equality in the rural economy.

Ms. Kozlica listed the rapid development of technology and market skepticism as the main obstacles, but they can be overcome through continuous learning and support from mentors and family. Ms. Kozlica main advice to event participants included: formalizing work in all circumstances, investing in digital knowledge and skills, networking and working together, and reaching agreements and setting boundaries within the family.

Ms. Marina Dimić Vugec started her career in social work because she loves working with people, she loves creativity, entrepreneurship and helping others. However, what she did not like was working with papers, too many reports and forms, and too little human contact. Nevertheless, her first work experience taught her to work with people, communicate, create partnerships and think strategically, analyze needs, define goals, find solutions and read legal acts, all of which she actively uses today. Another important source of knowledge and creativity was working in associations (Social Work Students’ Association, Sustainable Community Development, Multimedia Society of Informatics, Croatian Network Against Poverty), on projects, researching new topics, practicing continuous learning, courage and energy. Ms. Vugec has been building her career at CARNET (Croatian Academic and Research Network) for many years, where she participated in the implementation of numerous projects: the first national cybersecurity awareness campaign, Great Croatian Naives, development and establishment of the PiXi platform, European Cybersecurity Month, Safer Internet Day, E-schools, E-universities, European Cyber ​​Security Challenge, etc. 

Currently, Ms. Vugec works at the Span cyber security center, which conducts more than 100 trainings per year, of which 49 are specialist, with more than 3,000 participants, more than 200 companies, 592 participants of specialist training and 5 private specialist trainings. The trainings conducted by Span are aimed at creating new content adapted to new threats, new learning formats, working with educational institutions, projects, working with talents and involving more women. Ms. Vugec is especially proud of Women4Cyber, an inclusive community that is focused on connecting and supporting women in the field of cyber security, with a special emphasis on nurturing the talents of women at all stages of their careers. They are also very proud of their cooperation with the academic community, the private sector and state and public institutions and organizations and the W4C Foundation. 

Ms. Hana Paleka holds a PhD in public finance and behavioral economics, and her research focus is on tax discipline and fairness, gender-responsive public policies, and sustainable public finance. Ms. Paleka is publicly engaged in the City Council of the City of Rijeka, and also works as a researcher at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Focusing on gender equality, she conducts a lot of research on this topic, especially since: women hold only 22% of STEM jobs in G20 countries; in the EU, only 9% of inventors are women, while 98% of research fails to integrate the gender dimension. In the Republic of Croatia, 3% of the total workforce is made up of women scientists and engineers, while 19% of members of the boards of research organizations are women. Regarding gender-responsive budgeting, public spending affects women and men differently: the gender pay gap, the motherhood penalty, and the unequal distribution of unpaid work are not just a social issue, but also a factor in growth, resilience, and a sustainable economy. 

According to the International Labor Organization, women perform more than 76% of all unpaid care work in the world, and in no country do men and women share this work equally. Ms. Paleka contributes to change through her engagement in politics because she wants unpaid work, inclusion and the real needs of people to be visible and recognized in the policies that shape our lives. Women’s alliance and unity are necessary as a strategy for long-term social transformation. Ms. Paleka concluded her presentation with the words “A green and fair Europe will not be created without gender-sensitive public finances, and they are built by women who connect, know and act.”

Ms. Nina Šebečić Crnolatac recounted her career and career orientation, which began at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, and continued at the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, where she earned a master’s degree in marketing. Although she was among the best students at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, she shared with the audience the experience of not being allowed to apply for a job in the mid-1990s because she is a woman. Since she had been unable to find a job in her field in Croatia for some time, her career development path took her outside of Croatia, where she gained rich business experience. She worked for 12 years at Oriflame in global supply chain and marketing, and very quickly became acting managing director for Slovenia, and then for Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. After Oriflame, Coca-Cola (manages the Burn, Powerade and Illy brands) and Carlsberg (develops channel strategies and visibility standards), she worked in Kozmo (Agrokor), where she held the position of Director of Category Management & Marketing and achieves an enviable 20% increase in revenue with the launch of a private label and Guinness PR campaign. 

After the beverage market, she turns again to cosmetics: she works at Herbalife Nutrition as County director (she managed business in 8 countries, increased sales by 22% in the CEE region, launched numerous partnerships such as SOS Children’s Villages, etc.). At Avon Cosmetics Deutschland, she worked as Managing Director where she quadrupled profitability in the first year, carried out a strategic transformation and digitized operations, and strengthened both e-commerce and modernized the sales system. This was followed by an engagement at Tupperware Brands, where she held the position of EMEA Senior Director Services & Operations (optimized the supply chain and reduced the operational CO2 footprint, introduced a lean approach to inventory and increased SLA performance). In ItWorks! International she was President DACH & Scandinavia and established market-specific brand activation models and event strategy. In 2025, she founded Advisura – Strategic Business Consultancy to advise the SME sector in the area of ​​growth, efficiency and sustainability. The focus of her work is strategy, operational optimization, ESG integration, leadership development, and multichannel models.