A new President and Executive board elected

The 2019 MAAA elections were held on October 3rd, 2019. MAAA members elected a new President and three Executive Board members by secret ballot. Each MAAA member was eligible to apply for any position: president, member of the Executive board and member of the Supervisory board. The candidates running for the position of president had to submit a short resumé and a program including their experience, plans and goals regarding the functioning of MAAA, while the potential board members were required to submit a resumé with their skills and abilities required for the position. At the beginning of the Assembly, the present members had the chance to hear a short address by all the candidates, and then decide who they are going to give their vote to. Two candidates ran for the position of president, and eight for Executive board members. No one applied for a position in the Supervisory board.



Verica Jordanova was elected the new president with the majority of votes, and in addition, three members of the executive board were elected, Zorica Trajkova, Bashkim Ziberi and Biljana Shanev. Since the Assembly did not manage to elect a 4th member of the Board (the two candidates running for the position had an equal number of votes), it was decided that another Assembly should be held in due time. In the next round of the elections, hopefully, MAAA Assembly will elect the fourth Executive Board member, as well as the Supervisory Board members from the candidates that will apply for these positions.



The new president of MAAA, Ms. Verica Jordanova is a journalist and an entrepreneur. She is the founder and manager of www.inovativnost.mk, a specialized portal for promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, business and start-up ecosystem in North Macedonia and worldwide. Ms. Jordanova holds a master’s degree in the area of strategic communication, and has 20 years of experience in business journalism, and has worked as a consultant, PR expert, trainer, moderator, entrepreneur and event organizer. Her vision is to promote MAAA as an organization of experts and to increase the visibility of the organization and its relevance in the society. Ms. Jordanova’s program envisions lectures, debates, round tables,charity activities, volunteer activities of MAAA members to help the families in need, activities that promote clean and healthy environment, social activities and sports, quarterly awards for MAAA members for appreciation for the most valuable initiatives as well as promotional activities of MAAA in the wider community.

The vice president, Dr. Zorica Trajkova is an Associate professor at the English Department at the Faculty of Philology, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Besides her research activities, she has managerial skills that she utilizes as an editor of the MAAA newsletter. Her main vision of the role of MAAA in the society is to help strengthen the relationship and encourage dialogue among different segmentsof the society, by promoting human freedom and democracy along the way. As a MAAA executive board member she would offer support to the president in establishing and strengthening the cooperation with major US universities in order to stimulate greater mobility and improve the quality of the higher education in the country.

The new secretary general, Dr. Bashkim Ziberi is a Professor at the Tetovo University and collaborator of the Harvard Global Health Catalyst. He holds a doctoral degree in Experimental Physics from the University of Leipzig, Germany. He works within the Physics department at the State University of Tetovo and he is serving as the Rector’s adviser for international relations. Professionally, he is engaged in teaching and administrative tasks within the university and his main focus is on research activities.

The organizational secretary, Mrs. Biljana Sanev works as Human Resources Business Partners Department Manager in Stopanska Banka AD-Skopje. She holds a master’s degree in Business Administration – a major in Human Resources Management. She has excellent coordination and management skills that she utilizes to plan, work and implement nation-wide engagement programs. Her main efforts in MAAA will be to identify, cultivate, solicit and steward alumni prospects for taking part in projects, to identify potential MAAA donors and to improve the organization’s cooperation with the universities, associations, government and the business sector.

Written by Natalija Shikova