Our organization
The Fund for Innovations and Technology Development was established in December 2013 in order to encourage innovations by providing additional sources of funding, due to the need of creating competitive knowledge-based economy.
The organisational structure of the Fund for Innovations and Technology Development includes the following organisational units:
- Director
- Sector for Program Activities
- Department for Program Preparation
- Department for Program Implementation
- Sector for General and Legal Affairs and Finance
- Department for Legal Affairs, Public Procurement and Archive
- Department for Finance and Accounting
The governing bodies of the Fund are: Managing Board, Investment Approval Committee and Director. The Government of Republic of North Macedonia appoints the members of the administrative bodies and the director
The Managing Board consists of:
- Mr.Ivo Nikolov -president of the Managing Board
- Mr Blagoj Denkovski-member of he Managing Board
- Mr Kiril Kovcegarski-member of he Managing Board
- Miss Bojana Naumovska-member of he Managing Board
- Miss Nada Cvetkovska-member of he Managing Board
- Miss Mariana Georgievska-member of he Managing Board
- Mr.Blagojce Lazoroski-member of he Managing Board
Investment Approval Committee
The Investment Approval Committee consists of 5 members,elected and appointed by the Government of Republic of North Macedonia. The Committee reviews and approves the submited project proposals for all instruments for the Fund’s support. The members of the Comitee are selected from experts with at least ten years of international experience in the field of investment in innovation.
Türkay Ufuk Eren
A serial investor in several healthcare technology startups, Ufuk Eren is the Founding Partner and CEO of Volitan Global. Volitan Global is based in 12 countries on 3 continents and is focused on technologies, innovation management, investment and M&A-like consulting services in the healthcare and life sciences sectors. Volitan Global is also the founding partner of 10x Health Investment Club, a European-based healthcare technologies investment club. Since July 2014, Mr. Eren has also held leading roles at EY (Ernst&Young) as Healthcare and Life Sciences Sector Leader for Turkey and Healthcare Sector Senior Advisor for Central, East, Southeast Europe and Central Asia (CESA). Mr. Eren has also been the Senior Advisor for the Healthcare and Life Sciences Sectors for Vodafone since October 2017. At the same time, Eren serves as Partner and Member of Management Board of Aescuvest GmbH, Germany, which is the leading investment platform in Healthtech and Medtech in Europe. In addition, Ufuk Eren is a Partner and Member of Executive Board at DXNow Inc, US, which provides innovative solutions for assisted reproductive technology in humans and animals. Furthermore, Ufuk Eren serves as an advisor to Nizmara, offering his expertise in the healthcare and life sciences sectors to assist in candidate search and selection.
Throughout his career, Mr. Eren has held a number of senior leadership positions within the healthcare industry. Prior to his 20 year tenure with Siemens, he held management roles at International Hospital, Turkey and Canton Hospital in St. Gallen (KSSG), Switzerland. At Siemens, Mr. Eren held various roles such as CEO of the Clinical Products Division for Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Russia & Central Asia (RCA) Regions, CEO of South Asia Region, CEO of Siemens Healthcare Eastern Mediterranean Cluster and General Manager of Siemens Healthcare Turkey. In 2013, Mr. Eren joined the Acıbadem Healthcare Group, as a member of the Executive Committee and assumed responsibilities such as Acıbadem’s investments and global growth, management of laboratory companies, strategy development for PPP projects and developing new business models. In addition, Mr. Eren has held various executive positions in a number of non-governmental organizations throughout his career and continues to actively pursue such opportunities.He is also founder and Board member in TUSAP (Turkish Health Platform) and SAGEL (Future Leaders in Healthcare) platforms.
Marvin Liao
Marvin Liao has been a CEO at Yahoo! for over a decade. He is a former partner of “500 Startups” and Business Angel with over 19 years of experience in venture capital, technology businesses and startups. Marvin has invested in 500 startups since 2014, leading an accelerator program in San Francisco, as well as an investor in direct initial deals. “500 Startups” is one of the world’s most active venture capital firms, with a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scope, and build thriving global ecosystems.
“500 Startups” supports startups through its accelerator investment programs focused on digital marketing, growing the user portfolio, facilitating startup practices and raising funds for companies before their birth.
Gunther Fehlinger
Since 2018, Gunther Fehlinger is the General Secretary of CEE BC – Austria. For the last 28 years, he has been traveling and contributing to the transformation of the business sector in Central and Eastern Europe, and he knows very well the economies and challenges of young entrepreneurs and new businesses in the region. After 11 years of living in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, Gunter has been stationed in Kyiv since 2016.
Fehlinger’s resume also includes working at Business Europe at the position of General Secretary of the SME Union from 2000 to 2004. He has participated in various EU projects as an expert on European policy for small and medium enterprises, economic reforms and strategy for accession to the EU and local development of Albania, Kosovo, Ukraine.
He also worked for 4 years on the promotion of foreign direct investments in Albania. Fehlinger is the President of the reform policy of the European Tax Reform network and a member of the Board of Directors of the Benelux Balkan network for economic integration in the Southern Balkans.