The “Workplace Inclusion Champion, WIC” project is an ongoing project being developed by HR BCSD (Diversity Charter Croatia) alongside leading regional partners from the Šentprima Institute (Diversity Charter Slovenia) and the Carta Diversitatii din Romania (Diversity Charter Romania). The purpose of the project is to create a practical and strategic learning and mentorship framework for the Charter’s signatories in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania.
Our all-female Council board consists of: Karla Alfier, Daria Mateljak, Sanja Sarnavka, Diana Bekavac i Dijana Kesonja.
In order to learn more about our Council board members, please read their short biographies below:
Karla Alfier
Karla is a manager in Business Consulting at EY Croatia. As a qualified lawyer, she primarily deals with compliance and regulatory matters on various projects for clients coming from the private and public sector, with a focus on sustainability. Thus, she is assisting clients to comply with relevant obligations imposed through the sustainable finance regulatory framework, especially those in the financial sector. Activities in the field also include participation in lectures, workshops and trainings, all with the aim of promoting sustainability. Additionally, given her strong personal inclination towards climate change and environmental topics, she is dedicated to helping clients achieve sustainable goals in their daily business operations and communicate their progress and reached milestones through sustainability reporting.
Daria Mateljak
Daria Mateljak is the Managing Partner in the consulting company Hauska & Partner. In her rich consulting portfolio, she mostly dealt with business and communication consulting in problematic situations and in risk management, issues of building and preserving organizational reputation, managing topics during mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and starting new businesses, organizational culture and processes. Daria advises companies on issues of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility in all business segments, as well as sustainability reporting. She led many significant projects for large corporations and organizations, some of which have been awarded national and international awards. From 1991 to 2001, she worked as an advisor and as department head in the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of Information. Daria is a senior lecturer at the University of Zagreb, where she holds lectures CSR and sustainable development. She regularly participates at international conferences and publishes professional papers and textbook content from various thematic areas in communication, corporate social responsibility, corporate culture in risk management, and environmental communication. In her advisory work, but also in her scientific interests, she cultivates an interdisciplinary approach. In addition to her degree in general linguistics and English, she specialized in communications in the United States and the United Kingdom. Presently she is a doctoral candidate in communication and information sciences. For many years Daria has been actively participating in the work of the Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development – as a member of the Management Council, a member of the Organizational Committee of the CSR Conference and by participating in various HR PSOR (HR BCSD) projects. She is a longtime member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (UK), the Croatian Public Relations Association (which awarded her a special Grand PRix award for her contribution to the public relations profession), a member of the U4HR Association, and participates in the work of other professional and interest associations in the fields sustainable development and human resources. Daria is the Ambassador of the Diversity Charter in Croatia.
Sanja Sarnavka
Sanja Sarnavka, MA in Comparative Literature, has been engaged professionally as the human rights activist for the last twenty years. Albeit dealing with all forms of discrimination and human rights violations, her focus has been put primarily on gender equality, while her special interest and expertise lies in advocacy and media. She coordinated founding of the Human Rights House Zagreb, and held a position of the president of the Board for 8 years. For seventeen years she acted as the president of B.a.B.e. (Be active. Be emancipate,). She was a member of the Advisory Board of the HRH Network, member of the Advisory Panel of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, and a member of the Council for Civilian Oversight of Security and Intelligence Agencies in Croatia. Since 2017 she has been engaged with the Foundation Solidarna, and has held a position of the president of the Steering Council for the last three years. She developed, organised and/or participated in a number of research projects at national and international level – portrayal of women in daily newspaper, the image of women in media and advertising, Global Media Monitoring Project, Croatian school textbooks, etc. She is the author of several papers and books on portrayal of women in media, discrimination in Croatia, gender equality, and producer of 14 documentaries.
Diana Bekavac
Diana Bekavac 33 yo from Zagreb Croatia Member of the executive board and financial manager in Common Zone, an NGO most famous for Voxfeminae.net non profit media and Vox Feminae festival we run for the last 15 years. Most of our work revolves around gender and LGBTIQ equality. Co-founder and director of sales in FIERCE WOMEN d.o.o. social enterprise that produces the Fierce women, an educational, inspiring and fun game that celebrates and promotes women who made great contributions to society, and develops complementary products and educational tools.
Dijana Kesonja
Dijana Kesonja graduated law from the University of Rijeka. She obtained the title of an university specialist in human rights in Rijeka with the final topic “Hate speech in the Republic of Croatia and the European Union”. Since 2003, she has worked as an independent lawyer and, among other things, has represented parties in anti-discrimination proceedings and in areas of human rights protection in court proceedings before national and European courts of human rights. Since 2014, she has been working as an advisor for legal affairs and strategic litigation in the institution of the Ombudsman.