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Jelena Petkovic, Corporate Affairs Director at Tigar - Lady on A listing
Wednesday, 30.03.2011.
16:47
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(Jelena Petkovic)
Jelena Petkovic, the Corporate Affairs Director at Tigar, officially the business lady of the year 2010, a lawyer who achieves better results in the world of finance than many economists, educated for a state service, diplomacy, and working in the industry for almost three decades, says she does not regret anything, that she respect intelligent people who react quickly, and that there is no room for voluntarism in the business.
She was born in Belgrade, just like her parents and grandparents. As a child, she was sad for not having anyone in a village to visit during summer and winter breaks. Now she spends four days a week in Pirot and can't wait to return to Belgrade.
After she graduated from then the Eighth Belgrade Grammar School (now the Third), her wish was to become a doctor, but she gave up that wish at the last moment and enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, at which she later earned her MA degree.
She defended her MA thesis to Professor Smilja Avramov, while her menthor was Professor Zoran Antonijevic, an expert for securities. Then she thought that would be her only profession.
Entering the industry
After finishing her studies, she was unsuccessfully trying to find a job for a year and half. By a pure accident, she applied for a position in the legal department of the tire industry Rekord in Rakovica. Since the Employment Bureau was giving "negative points" for rejecting a job in the vocation, she did not want to allow that to happen and accepted the job at Rekord, intending to stay at that company for two or three months - until she finds something better.
These "two or three months" turned into a decade or so, during which she grow from a trainee to the director general.
- The circumstances were such that I stayed first for a year, then for two years, and then I got preoccupied with business problems. I guess that's the way the things go when you are doing a concrete job with people. On the other hand, the plant had a complete product portfolio, which secured a good position in the market until the 1990s - Jelena Petkovic explains for eKapija.
Rekord sent her to a specialist training to study international agreements, which is her third academic title. In the meantime, the embargo led to the emergence of a crisis in that plant.
The tire industry requires much space, quality water supply, which is something that Rekord unfortunately did not have. That was a tire factory situated between skyscrapers, while tire was one of the first five products that the embargo on import was put on in 1991. Crude oil and gas were necessary for the production to continue, but since none of them was available in the market to a sufficient extent, the plant that used to employ about 3,500 people was in operation for only four or five months a year.
- If you are in the leading position in a company and you don't see any future for the company over the period of minimum five next years, you should resign from that post – says the interlocutor of eKapija.
That is why she voluntarily left her position to one of her colleagues.
Her presence in the "world of numbers" is growing. She was a member of two commissions formed by late governor Avramovic - the Commission for Salaries, Taxes and Pensions, and the Commission for Monetary System Reform. That is how she was offered to start working for the National Bank of Serbia.
- I do not believe in changing professions. If you are engaged in finance, then that is what you do. If you are in the industry, then you are an "industrial person" forever. At least I do not see myself as capable of such transformation.
Tigar's success
Her disbelief is the reason why she accepted Tigar's invitation to work at its office in Belgrade.
- It was not a high position, but it was definitely a good solution at such an ugly time.
She started off as an assistant director with quite undefined job description, while now, almost fifteen years later, she knows the Pirot-based giant as the back of her hand.
She admits that she first stood aside, making sure not to take a wrong step, and then she got lucky.
Since she knew the language well and had a managerial experience, she got a chance to be the leader of Tigar-Michelin project. That cooperation started in 2000, after the changes in Serbia. Tigar had been collaborating with the US company Goodrich for 30 years when Michelin became the legal successor of Goodrich by taking over that US company.
- We first signed a "joint venture" agreement with Michelin, in which we expressed our intention to form a joint venture for the production of car tires. At the time, Michelin did not want to make investments, but it expressed a wish to form a joint venture and transfer the stake inherited from Goodrich to the new company.
After the embargo was lifted, the company needed investment capital so that they focused on the production of car tires, which then accounted for over 70% of the business.
- If you have a problem with your heart, you will have your heart treated and try not to think about a toothache. That is how we decided to stabilize the production of car tires because it was our core business. We found a solution to the problem of funds for that business in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. We started off with an agreement on financing working capital on the basis of our agreement with the company Michelin.
Jelena Petkovic was then appointed as the leader of the team for negotiations with the EBRD. The project was finished in 2001 when the president of Tigar signed an agreement in London. That was the first agreement the EBRD concluded with a company from Serbia.
In her opinion, it seems that the chance of a lifetime was used. That enabled her to achieve numerous successes later: agreements with the representatives of IFC Office, trilateral negotiations Tigar-Michelin-IFC, etc.
Think quickly-react quicklyThe work on aforementioned projects was significant primarily because of the experience she gained by working with people on such high level, as well as because of the opportunity to learn from professionals. That is why she says she respects smart people who think quickly, understand problems quickly and react quickly.
Since she does not have kids of her own, she just loves to "spoil" her sister's children.
She used to read a lot and go to theater and concerts. Now she spends her leisure time resting and relaxing. Her favorite part of Belgrade is the area around Tasmajdan, which reminds her of student life - the period when she lived the life to the fullest.
When she was a young girl, her parents supported her desire to travel a lot. She used to spend half of her vacation at the seaside, mainly in Dubrovnik, and the other half at summer language courses, primarily in France and England. That is why she sometimes astonishes foreign investors with her fluent English.Passionate traveler says that "old Europe" - France, Italy, Spain - is her favorite...
She contributed to the fact that Tigar is today one of the most successful economic stories. In the south of Serbia, in two separate companies, Tigar AD and Tiger Tyres, the total of about 5,000 employees have the chance to work.Although Tigar is already the European leader in the sector of rubber footwear, new successes in that field are announced. The company will also become active in the domain of rubber-technical products and products made of recycled rubber. Tigar also plans to implement certain ecological projects.
According to Ms. Petkovic, a new and bigger investment cycle should be expected in 2012.
J.Đ.
Tasmajdan