Alenka Smerkolj
Minister for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion
Slovenia
Alenka Smerkolj leads Slovenia’s government efforts to define and implement Slovenia’s long-term vision and development strategy. She was appointed as the Minister for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion on 19 November 2014. Before that she was a State Secretary at the Government Office for Development and European Cohesion Policy. Alenka Smerkolj has over 25 years of work experience in the field of international business and financial markets. For year she worked at the Nova Ljubljanska banka d.d. (NLB) where she held several positions, amo them also the position of the director responsible for financial markets.Throughout the years she has gained valuable experience with NLB liquidity management, she headed the communication with the Bank of Slovenia and the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance regarding NLB Group liquidity management. Moreover, she was responsible for balance sheet management, trade in financial instruments, investment banking and securities custody. She was responsible for relations with the key NLB international banking partners and was also in charge of supervision and coordination regarding the issuance of NLB debt instruments. Alenka Smerkolj was in charge of promoting the sales of capital market instruments of the Slovenian companies. She was a member of the Treasury Board at the Bank Association of Slovenia. She participated in various expert groups and gave lectures worldwide.