Short biographies

Jana Repanšek has served as Director of the CEF from 2017 and as Deputy Director from 2005. During this time, she has worked on or initiated a number of capacity development programs and projects in the fields of economic and fiscal policy design and implementation. From 2011 she has led CEF’s strategic institutional capacity development effort that resulted in CEF’s becoming a globally recognized regional knowledge hub. She was responsible for internal legal, organizational and HR-related issues that allowed for smooth transition of the CEF to an international organization in 2015. Her most recent focus is on ways individuals and teams collaborate among each other and on organizational learning and development. Before joining the CEF, she from 1998 worked for the World Bank in Washington DC and prior to that, she worked in the private sector in Slovenia. Jana holds an MSc degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of London, SOAS. Her professional focus is on institutional capacity development, managing organizational change, public policy and strategy, public financial management, and international development cooperation.

Ivana Nedižavec Korada is an economist who joined the CEF in 2013. Since 2017, she has served as Deputy Director, overseeing the organization’s financial management and ensuring the effectiveness of internal controls. The high quality of these processes was confirmed in 2018 when the European Commission’s Pillar Assessment recognized the CEF as a trusted entity for implementing the EU budget. Her responsibilities extend beyond finance to include HR management and development, where she focuses on fostering a culture of confidence and expertise among employees. She also leads IT infrastructure strategy development and execution, along with other key operational areas. A strong advocate for sustainability, Ivana actively contributes to advancing the Green Agenda, particularly in the context of financial management and governance. Before joining the CEF, she gained experience in the IT and energy sectors. She is also an active member of three Supervisory Boards, where she also holds the position of President of the Audit Committee.

Robert Bauchmuller has served as the CEF Chief Officer for Strategy since 2022. He has been with CEF since 2010 working in different leadership roles, promoting CEF strategic development, and designing and facilitating numerous regional and country-specific peer-to-peer learning programs, projects, and activities, and co-edited several publications in collaboration with external knowledge partners, and a range of experts. Before joining the CEF, Robert worked at Maastricht University as a research fellow and learning program manager. He holds a PhD in Public Policy Analysis and a Master’s degree in International Economics from the same university. His studies and research have focused on human resource investments and developments.

Kaja Nadj heads the Learning Program team. Since joining the CEF in 2013, she has been designing and delivering impactful learning and knowledge sharing initiatives in Auditing and Public Financial Management, and leading needs assessment and developing demand-driven program for public sector auditors. In 2015, she became State Internal Auditor in Slovenia and has contributed her professional knowledge in risk management by developing the risk management function at the CEF. Professionally, she is interested in ensuring accountability and transparency in public spending and has assisted the Slovene Ministry of Finance with the preparation of the first Citizens Budget. She holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Ljubljana and a Master's degree in Finance and Banking from the University of Maribor.

Ajda Turk heads the Leadership and Learning Ecosystems team and oversees the Learning and Knowledge Ecosystems thematic area. She is dedicated adult educator with over 15 years of experience in learning methodologies and knowledge management. She excels in project implementation, team collaboration, knowledge sharing and leveraging new and existing learning methods. As an authentic leader she focuses on people first. Her professional focus is on building capacities of public institutions to become learning organizations, assuring best quality of the CEF learning program and managing talents to be leaders in their domains. She holds a BA in Adult Education and various certifications on executive leadership, knowledge management, entrepreneurship, communication and marketing. Before joining CEF in 2016, Ajda worked as sports coach, was the National Coordinator of Slovenia for the EPALE platform (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe) at the Erasmus+ national agency, and co-implemented the campaign Lifelong Learning Week.