Dr. Gordana Nikolic

Dr. Gordana Nikolic

Dr. Gordana Nikolic is a prominent businesswoman, featured among the top 100 Croatian leaders. She is the founder, owner, and Dean of PAR University College, Croatia, the only independent higher education institution in the northern Adriatic region and among Croatia’s top 20 educational centers for entrepreneurship.

She is also the owner and director of Business Academy Rijeka. She has received many prestigious awards, including Best Woman Entrepreneur in Croatia in 2015 by the Croatian Association of Business Women – KRUG. In 2016, she received an award from the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County for the promotion of science, education, and female entrepreneurship in the region. The same year, she was also honored with the annual award from the City of Rijeka for her outstanding contribution to higher education and entrepreneurship, particularly for launching the first private higher education institution.

She is Vice President of the Global Women Leaders Committee, which brings together women in the global network of business angels. She states that these awards “have made PAR a strong promoter of women’s entrepreneurship and higher education quality on a national level”.

In addition to her business leadership and entrepreneurial roles, she also successfully leads her scientific career as part of the international scientific committee of the Master’s Program “Technologies for the Development of European Projects” in cooperation with EPA (European Projects Association) and the European Academy.

She has participated in several projects related to the development of economic entities, including the Implementation of the Croatian Qualifications Framework and the development of competencies for lifelong learning, supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia; Further Development of the Croatian Qualifications Framework (CROQF) TOT IPA Component IV-Human Resources Development-European Union Programme for Croatia, Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, WYG International Ltd.; EntrepreneurSHEp Croatia-Enterprise Europe Network, a project co-financed by the European Commission.

Since 2007, Dr. Gordana has been promoting lifelong learning projects and cooperating with international scientific institutions in the city of Rijeka. In doing so, she is particularly committed to her social responsibility in organizing educational programs for students and unemployed individuals. She has successfully collaborated with the City of Rijeka on numerous projects such as Healthy City, Youth Council of the City of Rijeka, education of athletes, hosts of the international summer school SenZations, organization of the international carnival school INCASO, and several humanitarian actions.

She is the President of the program-organizing committee of the PAR International Leadership Conference (PILC), which she organized in cooperation with the prestigious Iacocca Institute five years ago. Recently, she became a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Quality Research. With the goal of contributing to education in the local community, PAR has founded several NGOs: PAR Alumni, PAR Sport, and PAR Institute for the development and promotion of lifelong learning. Their work aims to integrate the efforts of existing PAR entities in developing civil society.

As an enthusiastic educator and experienced mentor, she believes, “When you have a goal and you start working on it – the goal comes to you.”