Tilen started his career at one of the “Big4” companies, working on a broad range of tax services, including tax due diligences in M&As. He later became head of corporate taxation at a Slovene consulting firm where he expanded the business to high-end tax advisory, financial, and accounting services. He was elected to the Slovene National Assembly in 2014 where his role was mainly public finance-related. Subsequently, he was appointed the state secretary at the ministries of finance and labor with responsibilities pertaining to the tax system, anti-money laundering, labor market, and pension system. He successfully led the implementation of multiple law and operational initiatives. He returned to advisory services on the scale-up and restructuring of companies, and expert services on public finance with a special focus on the tax system.

Vlado is a highly accomplished scholar, researcher, consultant, and former high level government official in Slovenia and North Macedonia with extensive experience in management, economics, and social development. He was among the first in former Yugoslavia to accomplish a Ph.D. in Management and Finance from Cleveland State University, USA. He holds Diploma and Masters in economics and a Diploma in philosophy. He is a professor of management and organization at the University of Ljubljana, School for Business and Economics, and a visiting professor at various universities worldwide. As a researcher he conducted many international projects and initiated Multidisciplinary Research and Development Centre for Social Innovations for Active and Healthy Ageing at the University of Ljubljana. During his fruitful career, he has served on various boards and received honors and awards. Among these he is one of the youngest members of European Academy of Sciences and Arts and recipient of Central and Eastern European Management Network Research Champion Award and Slovenian Research Agency Award of Excellence in Science.

Steffen is a Danish career administrator with a wealth of experience across all tax administration and customs components of revenue administration. Following more than twenty years of employment in various staff and middle management positions, he has since 1994 held top management positions at both regional and central level, including at the Danish Ministry of Taxation as Deputy Permanent Secretary. Mr. Hansen has led a number of large-scale and complex development and reorganization projects, including merger of customs and tax agencies, streamlining of organization structures, and full implementation of a modern Compliance Risk Management system. He possesses a wealth of experience in cooperating with the European Commission, as well as familiarity with EU rules and regulations in customs and taxation, and with the EU customs and fiscal blueprints. Mr. Steffen Normann Hansen worked in the position of IMF Tax Administration Reform Advisor for South East Europe, based at the CEF. He helped SEE countries’ tax administrations deal with the challenges they faced in their attempts of achieving effective and efficient application of modern risk management approaches. Mr. Hansen is now working as in independent consultant on improving Customs and Tax organizations and procedures.

Noel's initial contacts with the CEF were as the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and then with a particular responsibility for its international development. Jointly we developed a professional training program for financial managers in western Balkans countries, which subsequently developed as an internal audit certification program and has extended its reach geographically. Noel is also a lecturer at the CEF internal audit related workshops.

Natasha Ilijeva-Acevska has a professional focus on leadership, learning, innovations, and public institution development. She was a member of the CEF Secretariat for seven years, where she co-designed and implemented projects that promoted EU accession for the Western Balkans by strengthening economic development, leadership skills, policy cycle management, and knowledge ecosystems. She co-developed the concept of Public Institutions as Learning Organizations. Her expertise extends to multi-level governance and intergovernmental finance relations, as evidenced by her work at NALAS, UNDP, EU, and USAID-funded projects. She is also an experienced trainer and consultant for public officials and CSOs. Natasha is pursuing a Doctorate of Business Administration in Sustainable Innovation Management. She holds a Master's degree in European Integration and Communication, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Management. She is certified in Harvard University's "Leading Economic Growth", New York University's "COMBI Communication for Development", Daniel Goleman's "EQ Skills" programs, and is an Art of Hosting practitioner.

Saša is an expert in the Slovenian public finance system and fiscal rules, with nearly 30 years of experience in monetary and fiscal policy management, international financial markets, and European institutions. She began her career on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange and continued at the Bank of Slovenia. Saša has held top-level positions in the government, including Director General of the Budget Directorate at the Ministry of Finance and the State Secretary in three governments. During her tenure, she promoted structural reforms needed to consolidate public finances and achieve Slovenia's economic independence. Saša strongly advocates for the efficient use of public money, results-oriented budgeting, and the long-term sustainability and transparency of public finances. Under her leadership, the budget team set up a website proracun.gov.si to monitor the state budget's daily updated revenues and expenditures, the history of public spending, and the projects co-financed from the budget. Saša is also an author of articles on public finance and a regular lecturer.

Andreja played a significant role as the National Aid Coordinator during Slovenia's pre-accession period, establishing the national system for external assistance management and negotiating arrangements with the European Commission. After Slovenia's accession to the EU, she continued her responsibilities as Head of the Managing Authority for Structural and Cohesion Funds, overseeing overall national coordination and financial management of EU funds. As the Supreme State Auditor at the Court of Audit of Slovenia, she introduced the first audits of EU budget expenditures in the country. During the financial crisis, Andreja worked as State Secretary for Development and EU Affairs, coordinating national anti-crisis measures, including the transition to results-based budgeting. She participated actively in the EU enlargement process and membership negotiations with candidate countries. She also served as an EU High-Level Advisor on Aid Coordination in Moldova. Andreja has been involved with the CEF from its early years, contributing as a lecturer and being a member of the CEF Management Board as a representative of the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and later as the Chair of the CEF Advisory Board.

Branimir is an economist at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, specializing in the Western Balkans region. Previously, he worked as an advisor to the Minister of Finance of North Macedonia, where he was involved in several important reforms, such as the tax reform, social protection system reform, and public financial management reform. Additionally, Branimir worked as a researcher at the Central Bank of North Macedonia, actively participating in the monetary policy decision-making process. His current research interests cover a wide range of fields, including economic inequality, poverty, fiscal and monetary policy, taxation, social policies, financial crises, foreign direct investment, EU integration, and regional economic cooperation. Branimir holds a PhD from the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" in Italy, as well as a Master's degree from Staffordshire University, UK.

Ana has over 10 years of experience in designing and managing reforms in area of public financial control, public finance reforms and social policy. Her experience includes work as General Director in Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, leading PIFC reforms and accounting and auditing reforms. She also participated in EU negotiation process by chairing Working group for Chapter 32- Financial Control. Prior to this role, she was engaged in the ISSP, an economic think tank, and participated in many domestic and international projects in the areas of labor, pensions, and welfare and tax policies. Throughout the past 20 years, Ana had consulting arrangements with World Bank, OECD/SIGMA, and various EU-funded projects. In cooperation with CEF she participated in the implementation and localization of TIAPS-based certification of internal auditors in the public sector of Montenegro, and participated in other projects related to internal audit certification.

Duncan has supported the CEF already in its establishment in 2001, when he was Budget and Treasury Advisor for Slovenia. Mr. Last was the IMF PFM Advisor for South East Europe until October 2016, having previously been based at IMF headquarters for 8 years. Prior to that he had been working in the field for 20 years covering various PFM topics, including PFM Advisor at the IMF AFRITAC East; Budget and Treasury Advisor in Slovenia (also covering various other SEE countries); Budget and IFMIS Advisor in Mali and Papua New Guinea; Debt Management Advisor in Papua New Guinea; and Debt Management Software designer at the Commonwealth Secretariat in the UK. After his retirement, Mr. Last remains closely associated with the CEF, supporting CEF learning initiatives especially in the area of PFM.

Paul McClure served as editorial lead at the World Bank‘s headquarters in Washington, D.C. Since 2008, he has partnered with the CEF to help dozens of government experts upgrade the effectiveness of their written communications in English, working with course participants from all CEF members and several adjoining EU member states. While resident at the CEF as a visiting expert in 2012-2013, Mr. McClure tailored his curriculum to the needs of specific institutions – the central banks of Albania and Slovenia as well as Montenegro‘s finance ministry. Working on-site in Ljubljana also gave him the chance to engage with some of the CEF‘s donor partners and peer institutions, and he contributed to the successful launch of the Strategic Planning and Budgeting program. Having worked more than 20 years at the World Bank, he continues to engage with the CEF on communications-related learning initiatives.

Mojmir is a Jean Monnet professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing the Slovenian government’s policy in international finance and EU accession. At the CEF, Mr. Mrak lectures and delivers workshops on Instruments for Pre-Accession Assistance. He also facilitated discussions on the inclusion of structural reforms and policy coordination of medium-term fiscal and economic planning for the CEF’s Building Capacities in Policy Design and Implementation (BCPDI) program. Within the BCPDI, he was an advisor for the EU funded Strategic Planning and Budgeting project; for the Fiscal Impact Assessment of Structural Reforms project, he chaired a working group and co-edited the project’s final publication.

Nihad is an international public financial management (PFM) consultant keen on capacity development for achieving development and other policy goals. His professional experience spans nearly two decades of progressively more demanding roles in technical assistance initiatives for improved PFM in CEF constituency countries and beyond. During his tenure as the Senior Program Officer at the CEF, he supported the learning program, project management, and strategic initiatives. Since then, he has continued working regionally and globally with ministries of finance, line ministries and supreme audit institutions on securing objective and evidence-based assessments of the state-of-play of PFM systems' operations, supporting strategic reform planning and sequencing, and providing hands-on support to introduce and develop good PFM practices across the budget cycle.

Birger is an experienced development professional in public finances and beyond. He holds a PhD from Hamburg University on Tax Culture and Tax Reform and is a certified TADAT assessor and TADAT team leader. He has been involved in various project planning and leadership positions, mainly with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), contributing to public finance, tax, anti-corruption and legal reform initiatives, in the CEF region e.g. in Serbia, Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia. Beyond his dynamic work with GIZ, Birger has maintained a longstanding connection with the CEF, where he has served as a member of the CEF Governance bodies, i.e. the CEF Advisory Board (AB) and his representation of the AB on the CEF Governing Board. His focus of advice to CEF is on strategy, leadership and change management.

Robin is an international consultant specializing in learning and capacity development. He has held several expert and management positions within the United Nations system, in the areas of capacity development and sustainable learning strategies. His first interaction with the CEF occurred through the Learn4Dev network, where he represented the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC ILO) as the Head of Learning and Communication. Currently, Robin provides consultancy services in capacity development, sustainable learning strategies, and change management to a diverse range of organizations, including international organizations, NGOs, European institutions, and trade unions. His educational background includes an MBA in Applied Communication with a specialization in lifelong learning. Notably, Robin has contributed to the CEF team also by developing two laboratories focused on transformative change through contemporary art, and the exploration of sound, learning, and change.

Vincent is a managing director and co-founder of the Institute for Knowledge and Innovation Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA) in Thailand. He is also an internationally recognized professor and researcher, with substantial experience as a consultant, keynote speaker, and event manager. His expertise covers topics of collaboration, knowledge and innovation management, creativity, and organizational culture. He has published over 100 articles, papers and books on these topics. Vincent uniquely combines the theory and practice of knowledge management and organizational learning, and has earned numerous awards in this area, including recent Knowledge Management Award 2022.

Gorana is a Head of the Unit for State Asset Management Strategic Planning Coordination, at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets in Croatia, with more than 15 years of experience in public sector accounting and financial management. Her competencies are strategically located at the intersection between academia and top-level practice. Her work is focused on international and comparative public sector accounting and financial reporting, international public sector accounting standards setting and public sector financial management, with a particular emphasis on public sector asset management reforms domestically, regionally, and worldwide. Her research has been presented at various international conferences and published in scientific journals. She has hosted and participated in workshops, roundtables, and trainings on topics related to public sector accounting and public sector asset management. She is one of the EGPA PSG XII: PSFM co-chairs. She has closely collaborated with CEF, supporting CEF learning initiatives in the area of PSFM.

Janez is a senior economic expert with more than 10 years hands-on experience in formulating and implementing economic and fiscal policies. At the CEF he is as affiliated expert supporting development and implementation of the Data and Analysis for Designing Policies thematic area. He led the Slovenian government's macroeconomic institute (IMAD) from 2000 to 2007. He was Vice-President of the ECOFIN's Economic Policy Committee and, in 2012, finance minister of Slovenia designing the policy of fiscal consolidation and banking crisis resolution. Today he is a partner in a private firm RE-FORMA, d.o.o., and a full professor of economic policy. Since 2013 he worked as an international consultant for the OECD and on a number of technical assistance projects.

Deon is an international expert on government finance statistics (GFS) and macroeconomic issues, with extensive experience at the IMF and Statistics Netherlands. In the region, he is engaged as a GFS advisor. He advises compilers in various national institutions on how to implement GFS data reporting, both for the IMF and the EU in compliance with the fiscal reporting requirements. Deon also collaborates with other international organisations such as the World Bank and Eurostat. He is collaborating with CEF on developing programs within the thematic areas 'Leadership for Managing Reforms' and 'Data and Analysis for Designing Polices'.

Irena has been involved with the CEF from its early years, contributing as a lecturer and being a member of the CEF Governance bodies as a representative of the Bank of Slovenia. Currently, she is serving as an adviser in the President’s Cabinet at the Court of Audit of Slovenia. During her 30+ years-long work journey she performed in different roles within the national financial system. For seven years she acted as a Vice Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, responsible for banking supervision and financial regulation. She was also an active member of the ECB Supervisory Board, supervising the largest commercial banks and banking groups operating in the eurozone. Irena also worked as the deputy director of the Bank Association of Slovenia. Before that, she was Director General and Head of Financial System Department at the Ministry of Finance. At the beginning of her career, Irena focused on macroeconomic analysis and projections at the Analysis and Research Centre of the central bank and the Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia. During the first Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council in 2008 she contributed to the adoption of some important financial legislative proposals at the time, such as the UCITS IV and Solvency II directives.