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Dragan Schwarz is Visionary of the Year, Croatia has a historic opportunity to make headway

10.2.2023

  • The visionaries of the year by category are economy (Dragan Schwarz, Radiochirurgia Zagreb), technology (Zlatko Hrkać and Ivan Bešlić, Sofascore), society (Marina Škrabalo, Solidarna Foundation), culture (Seid Serdarević, Fraktura), and sport (Croatian national football team).
Dragan Schwarz is Visionary of the Year, Croatia has a historic opportunity to make headway

The Visionary of the Year is Dragan Schwarz, the founder and director of the Radiochirurgia special polyclinic, one of the best in the fight against cancer not only in Europe but also in the world. It was announced at the Visionary of the Year conference organized by tportal, one of the leading news portals in Croatia.

The Visionary of the Year conference gathered more than 200 prominent people from domestic business and society, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, successful Croatian companies, institutions, and Croatian MEPs.

The conference is the culmination of the great Visionary of the Year project, which aims to single out, highlight and encourage individuals who open up new opportunities for Croatia through their activities and successes. In addition to the overarching Visionary of the Year, visionaries were chosen in five categories - economy, technology, society, culture, and sport, and the shortlist of five finalists in each of the categories went to 11 members of the jury of prominent representatives of domestic business and society. Through various stages, the project involved more than 150 people who work and push boundaries every day affecting their surroundings, with the aim of supporting the tportal editorial office in the desire to emphasize the positive trend that catalyzes the incredible success of a part of the domestic economy in Croatia, which is still led by few extremely talented and globally recognized people.

"Thank you for this award; the competition was great and strong. When more people dream the same dream, then it becomes reality. One day you wake up and realize that there are enough of us to make something happen. And we succeeded - we applied the latest technology not used anywhere in the world. This is not done in America, England, Germany, or in Italy. It is done in Croatia. Cancer is the challenge of the 21st century. We invite everyone to join forces in the fight against cancer and in this way ensure a better and longer life for our citizens", said Dragan Schwarz, founder, and director of the Radiochirurgia special polyclinic.

In addition to the umbrella award for Visionary of the Year, Schwarz received recognition for Visionary of the Year in the economy category. Zlatko Hrkać and Ivan Bešlić, co-founders of the Sofascore startup for the visualization of sports data, who, with more than 20 million users worldwide, are just beginning to realize the potential of their business idea, were declared visionaries of the year in the tech category. The visionary of the year in the society category is Marina Škrabalo, manager of the Solidarna Foundation, which in a short time since its establishment managed to raise more than HRK 22 million to help people in crises and significantly strengthened the system of humanitarian institutions operating in Croatia, led by Caritas and the Red Cross. The visionary of the year in the category of culture, Seid Serdarević, owner and editor-in-chief of Fraktura publishing house, has always pushed the boundaries in Croatian publishing. He recently did so again by launching Fraktura's subsidiary publishing house - Bodoni, which specializes in publishing literary classics in a modern version. In the category of sports visionaries of the year are the national team members of the Croatian football team, on behalf of which the coach Zlatko Dalić took the recognition.

"With the Visionary of the Year initiative, we want to highlight and celebrate outstanding individuals, companies, and ideas that drive positive changes in Croatia. At a time when as a nation, economy, and society we are facing various challenges, with their perseverance, bold vision, optimism, and transformative innovations, they are an inspiration and an example of how it is possible to turn a crisis into an opportunity. Entry into the eurozone and the Schengen area, GDP growth, and investment rating are extraordinary achievements that have positioned Croatia even better on the European map. Croatia has a good platform on which it can continue to build and develop, and through this project, we got the opportunity to see that we have many visionaries in society who can pull us forward even more strongly", said Kostas Nebis, President of the Management Board of Hrvatski Telekom.

In addition to the announcement of Visionaries, part of the conference was the panel "Do we have the right to optimism?". Participants were Ivan Malenica, Minister of Justice and Administration, Željko Kukurin, President of the Management Board of Valamar, Roberto Kutić, co-founder and operational director of Infobip, Irena Weber director general of HUP, Maruška Vizek, Assistant Director of the Zagreb Economic Institute, and Siniša Đuranović, Board Member and Chief Corporate Affairs Director of Hrvatski Telekom. Everyone agreed that the best way to fully exploit the potential of Croatia's successful entry into the Eurozone and the Schengen area is to remove barriers for people who open up new opportunities for the whole society and the possibility of reaching the highest EU standards.

"Visionaries are not intended as a one-time project. As a news portal focused primarily on business and technology, we will continue to bring such stories, soon in a new, redesigned form. In the year in which we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we are coming up with a redesign that will be both visually and functionally a step forward in accordance with the requirements of the times and our readers. We remain the benchmark for what is important," said Dijana Suton, editor-in-chief of tportal.

As part of the Visionary of the Year project, tportal is intensively continuing the search for those who have the potential for Visionary of the Year and who will irreversibly put Croatia on the track of the most successful countries. The content will continuously reveal and highlight those who are actively advocating for the necessary changes to established patterns that are an obstacle to development and that change Croatia's perspective.

More information about the Visionary of the Year project:

Visionaries of the Year were chosen by an expert jury composed of:

  • Željko Lovrinčević, Governor of the Croatian National Bank
  • Željko Lovrinčević, President of the Management Board at Podravka
  • Roberto Kutić, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Infobip
  • Kostas Nebis, President of the Management Board at Hrvatski Telekom
  • Christoph Schoefboeck, President of the Management Board at Erste banka
  • Ivana Gažić, President of the Management Board of the Zagreb Stock Exchange
  • Irena Weber, Director General of the Croatian Association of Employers (HUP)
  • Željko Lovrinčević, member of the Governing Council of the Zagreb Institute of Economics
  • Prof. Vedran Bilas, PhD Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing in Zagreb
  • Željko Lovrinčević, director of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb
  • Renato Baretić, prominent journalist, author

All finalists for Visionaries of the Year by category:

Economy

  • Igor Čičak, CEO and main partner of Provectus Capital Partners
  • Marko Dabrović, Saša Begović, Silvije Novak, Tatjana Grozdanić Begović, Paula Kukuljica, co-owners of Studio 3LHD
  • Željko Kukurin, President of the Management Board of Valamar
  • Tomislav Rukavina, majority owner of Klimaoprema
  • Dragan Schwarz, founder of Radiochirurgia Zagreb

Technology

  • Albert Gajšak, owner and director of CircuitMess
  • Zlatko Hrkać, Ivan Bešlić, founders of Sofascore
  • Ivan Jelušić, Vlatko Matijević and Srđan Kovačević, founders of Orqa FPV
  • Silvio Kutić, Roberto Kutić, Izabel Jelenić, founders of Infobip
  • Davor Tremac, director and founder of Fonoa

Society

  • Natko Beck, radiology specialist
  • Ema Donev, student
  • Stipislav Jadrijević, head of the transplantation team of the Department of Abdominal Surgery of the Merkur Clinical Hospital
  • Korado Korlević, astronomer, educator, head of the Višnjan Observatory
  • Marina Škrabalo, manager of the Solidarna Foundation

Culture

  • Željko Belinić, author and influencer - Man-magazine
  • Monika Herceg, poet and playwright
  • Juraj Lerotić, award-winning film director
  • Seid Serdarević, owner and editor-in-chief of Fraktura publishing house
  • Nebojša Taraba & Miodrag Sila, production company Drugi plan

Sport

  • Croatian national football team
  • Croatian water polo national team
  • Petra Marčinko, tennis player
  • Luka Perković Perkz, esports star - League of Legends
  • Antonio Radić, YouTube star - Agadmator