Slovenia Speakers 2017

Anja Kopac Mrak was born on 4 April 1974 in Kranj, where she completed high school. She graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Sociology – human resources management. She spent part of her studies at post-graduate level at the University of Bath, in England, attending an international course entitled “Analysis of European Social Policy”. In 2004 she received her PhD in the field of social policy, where she dealt with issues related to the reform of the welfare state. As of 1998, she has been employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences, first as a young researcher, and later as a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Organisations and Human Resources. She has participated in numerous domestic and international projects in the fields of social policy, employment policy, and management of human resources, as well as serving as head of an international research team. She has been a member of international research networks (COST A13, RECWOWE), and was a national EU expert on pensions prior to becoming State Secretary in December 2008. She has performed numerous evaluations of national social policies and employment policies in the field of European social policy, mostly concerning the employment of the unemployed, balancing professional and family responsibilities, and lifelong learning. She is an assistant professor of sociology and a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences. She teaches Sociology of Social Policy, European Social Policy and takes part in the course on Labour and Social Law. She is the author of several scientific works in the field of social and employment policy, including a book entitled “Activation – turn in social policy”. Between 2008 and 2012, she served as State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs. In the last years, she served as the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. In this period, she and her colleagues successfully managed numerous projects in the field of the legal security of workers, social security, employment and equal opportunities. She is a mother of two children and lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Sonja Klopčič, engineer, innovator, entrepreneur, manager and leader. She has over 25 years of experiences on various top positions, where she served as general manager, chair of the board and crisis manager. Now she is an independent developer of collaborative leadership, coach and speaker. She is also the author of two books on leadership and numerous leadership related articles. Her sincere aim is to inspire and support leaders in the creation of conscious organizations and prosperity for all stakeholders and society in general. She is a gold member of the Managers’ Association of Slovenia and leader of the mentoring network of the Women Managers.

As a production executive, business manager, international PR manager, senior consultant, EU project manager, education intern, editor of a weekly magazine for the Young, coordinator of exhibitions of audio – visual works at the gallery, she has worked for Hanna’s atelier of sonorous arts, En-Knap group, NGO Baobab, NGO Amala, The Ministry for culture of Slovenia, New Paradox, Slovenian society for quality of life, Gymnasium Jože Plečnik, Delo d.d., House of culture Pivka and several other artists and art productions. As a phd. student of the Aesthetics at the Faculty of arts (Ljubljana) and Univerzitaet Music und darstellende Kunst (Wien) she specialises in harmonical analysis and medieval music and healing. She lectures sustainable economies, sustainable development, alternative money systems in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Vis (Croatia) and runs an early education programme, teaching music, arts, permaculture and construction of instruments for up to 10 years old. Fluent in English, learner-beginner of Indian, well understanding French and basic German she also has the basic audio-visual technical skills to coordinate the eve

Andreja Cepuš, coming from Slovenia, is Social Artist and Slovenia Chariperson of ALL Ladies League. She is serving as creative communications and intuitive PR contributor, writer and author, innermost potential activator, conscious organizer, host and facilitator of different workshops (on activating the authentic leadership potential) and uniquely designed women mentoring program Art of Being, as well as co-creator of other events and innovative platforms.After finishing her studies of Marketing Communications at Faculty for Social Sciences at University of Ljubljana, and working for several years in different marketing & communication fields for different renowned companies in Slovenia, she followed her own soul entrepreneurial path as ARS, Creative Communications, and is now fully dedicated to unite different fields of our society (business, art and spirituality) through her services and contribute to the rise of the consciousness and positive systemic change in the world.She is well recognized for her work in the field of empowering women and rising consciousness in Women Leadership in Slovenia. She is also a guest speaker and member of many Slovenian initiatives that explore and implement new concepts of leadership, open innovation, art of hosting, creative living, storytelling, sustainability and transformational education. Her services are based on feminine principle of creation with mission of bringing essence into presence and rising consciousness on our planet.

Sonja Šmuc is an executive director of the Managers’ Association of Slovenia since 2005. She focuses on development of Slovenian management and leadership to encourage competitiveness of Slovenian businesses. Among other business topics she has specialized in women’s leadership.She is a member of different professional bodies (Accreditation Committee of Bank Assets Management Company, Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunities with European Commission, Board of Summit100 business leaders of SEE…) and award boards. She also served as a treasurer of CEC – European Managers, a European confederation of managerial organizations with headquarters in Brussels.In 2006 Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia co-awarded her with bronze award for innovation in publishing. She is also a co-author of a book on managing export risks. Before joining MAS she was editor-in-chief of magazine Manager, specialized in leadership and management. She is the author of more than 700 business related articles. She has a degree from Economic Faculty in Ljubljana, she attended courses at Stanford University of California, Vienna’s Wirtschaftsuniversität and IEDC – business school of Bled.