Pristupačnost
The first meeting of the newly established FER Alumni Board took place on Friday, 3 March 2023, at the Faculty's Alumni Club. In his address, Dean Vedran Bilas explained that the Alumni Board aims to connect a strong, respected, and highly successful alumni community in Croatia and abroad to strengthen the Faculty. The emphasis will be on infrastructure and personnel development, as well as international recognition.
FER has been a springboard for many influential alumni, and their knowledge and influence can create new synergies for new generations of FER students.
The Alumni Board comprises 16 distinguished members who are prominent in their respective fields of work: Luka Abrus (Five), Davor Baković (Končar - Mjerni transformatori), Mirna Bašić (Erste&Steiermärkische Bank), Tomislav Car (Productive), Josip Ćesić (Gideon), Tomislav Čleković (Rimac Automobili), Boris Drilo (Hrvatski Telekom), Ivana Fazinić (Q agency), Anja Hula (Infobip), Gordan Kreković (Visage Technologies), Goran Mirković (AVL - AST), Mladen Pejković (Atlantic Group), Renata Rubeša (Croatian Transmission System Operator), Zlatka Tečec Ribarić (KONČAR - Institute of Electrical Engineering), Davor Tomašković (Croatia Insurance) and Igor Strejček (Microblink).
Dean Bilas presented the priority initiatives of the Alumni Board, which are divided into four areas: Attract, Meet & Transfer, Community, and Mentoring. The Alumni Board will establish individual working groups for each of these areas.
More information can be found below, and photos are available in the FER Gallery.
The goals of the initiative are to promote the FER brand internationally, find partners for projects, and increase the number of foreign students. The Alumni Board plans to organise annual meetings of alumni from Croatia and abroad, with various activities aimed at attracting top returning alumni to FER. The Board will also establish a foundation for needy and successful students of all levels of study and develop mentoring programmes for the personal development of students, doctoral students, and researchers.
Mladen Pejković was elected as the head of the board. Tomislav Marković (FER) was appointed coordinator for cooperation with the alumni community, Vana Jeličić (Tridonic, Germany) was appointed coordinator of the alumni community abroad, and Krešimir Macan (Manjgura), also an alumnus of FER, was appointed communications advisor.
Pejković pointed out that the proposed initiatives are comparable to those of similar universities from around the world and invited alumni to propose new ideas, as selecting the best initiatives is one of the goals of the Alumni Board meeting. "The mission of the Faculty is the technological development of Croatia, and ultimately the European Union, as well as the creation of a welfare society. Not a society where STEM is the purpose, but a society where STEM enables the other components of society and the economy to flourish in the desired way", Pejković emphasised.
The members of the Alumni Board introduced themselves individually and agreed that it was now time for them to give back to their Faculty at least a part of what they have received by using their current positions as successful entrepreneurs and managers. They recalled their student days with pride and expressed their gratitude, especially to their mentors. Mentoring was particularly highlighted as an important link in the development of top engineers, which FER has been promoting for decades.