The Board of Roma Education Fund has the pleasure of announcing that Mr. Nadir Redzepi was selected as the new Executive Director. The Board has completed the selection process that started in June of 2015. Mr. Redzepi began his service as Executive Director on January 2, 2016.
The Board of Roma Education Fund has the pleasure of announcing that Mr. Nadir Redzepi was selected as the new Executive Director. The Board has completed the selection process that started in June of 2015. Mr. Redzepi began his service as Executive Director on January 2, 2016.
Mr. Redzepi has served as a member of the Board of the Roma Education Fund (2007-2014) and shortly a member of the board of Roma Initiative Office at Open Society Foundations (2008-2009). As a long-term member of the Roma Education Fund Board he learned what is at the heart of REF and its mission, what are REF’s achievements, what challenges it faces now and what is needed to guide the organization through this transitory period.
Nadir Redzepi, born in 1963, is a Macedonian Roma. He holds a degree in Sociology from Corvinus University, and also completed additional certified programs on NGO Management, Change Management and Strategic Planning in Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States.
He previously served as Senior Program Manager at Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma, a Open Society Foundations’ program where he worked since 2010. He managed a portfolio of eight countries in Central and South Eastern Europe, providing technical assistance and capacity building interventions for accessing European Union funds, facilitating cooperation and institutional dialogue at the local level, and mobilizing civil society networks for advocating on behalf of Roma inclusion policies at the national level.
Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, he was Executive Director of the Roma Democratic Development Association – Sonce in Tetovo, Macedonia (2004-2009). As a representative of Roma civil society organizations, he also was chosen as a delegate to the National Working Group that was formed as part of the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative in Macedonia.
Mr. Redzepi possesses extensive experience in Roma policies and initiatives, including Roma children’s education, Roma participation in policy design and policy-making, and the use of EU funds for Roma policy implementation. Over the years, he has acted as an analyst and researcher, evaluator and trainer for the Council of Europe, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Minority Rights Group and Open Society Institute, to name just a few. He has published a number of articles on Roma issues and he is presently an active member of the Alliance Group of the European Roma Institute (ERI).
I hope that this decision will open a new chapter in REF’s history and that under his leadership the organization will continue working effectively and to the best interest of those concerns, that is Roma children and their families.
– Andrzej Mirga, REF Chair
