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Rich McClear, Chief of Party

SMAP Chief of Party Rich McClear is a broadcaster from Alaska. His love of radio started as a childhood hobby. He began his broadcast career in 1965 as a TV engineer. Since then he has been a news reporter, program director and station manager. He is past chairman of the Alaska Public Radio Network and currently a part owner of Chinook Concert Broadcasters operating stations in Anchorage, Alaska. He has an MA from the University of Minnesota in international media development.


In the early 1990s when the “ice curtain” across the Bering Straits melted Rich began travel to the Russian Far East, covering events in Vladivostok for the Alaska Public Radio Network. His work in Russia led to a second career in international media development. Rich lived overseas for more than a decade and led IREX’s media development programs in Albania, Slovakia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia. He has also done consulting work in the Middle East. After four years working at his stations in Alaska he has returned the media assistance field.

Andrea Lemieux, Program Officer

Andrea Lemieux serves as a Program Officer in IREX’s Media Development Division. Ms. Lemieux manages a portfolio worth 6,550,000 USD which includes: ProMedia II Serbia, KMAP, the Strengthening Civil Society and Monitoring Capacity in Moldova (SCSMCM) program, KMAP, and The Hague Reporting Project. In addition to managing programs from DC, Ms. Lemieux has spent several months in Belgrade running the program and setting up the new IREX Belgrade office in February 2008. In addition to managing these four p rojects, Ms. Lemieux provides assistance writing and reviewing proposals for new programs. Other notable positions include Program Associate for IREX running the Kosovo Independent Media Program (KIMP) and the Montenegro Independent Media Program (MIMP), and Chief Operations Officer for the Howard University Charter Middle School of Mathematics and Science.

 

Marina Paunovic, Deputy Chief of Party

Marina Paunovic joined IREX in November 2008. She has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade. From May 2007 to April 2008 Ms. Paunovic was the Country Manager of IDC for Serbia and Montenegro. In that position, she had overall responsibility for all business lines of the Serbian subsidiary of IDC. She co-authored research studies and supervised data collection, consolidation, and analyzed ICT business development in the region. From 2005 to 2007 she worked for Booz Allen Hamilton on the USAID Serbia Enterprise Development Project in the capacity of Senior Adviser for Information and communication technologies.

 

Igor Mandic, Finance Manager

Igor Mandic joined IREX team in March 2008. He has almost 8 years of experience, gained working for profit and nonprofit companies. Before IREX, he used to work for CHF International as Finance Manager on USAID funded project CRDA. Besides finances, he is proficient in making high quality audio equipment

Vladan Nikolic, Grants Manager

Vladan Nikolic graduated in management and international marketing at the University of Belgrade. He has more than 4 years of experience on USAID funded projects, implemented by consulting companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton. He also has experience in the field of web development.

 

Jelena Olofsson, Media Law and Associations Program Manager

Jelena Olofsson joined IREX in January 2009 to work on the legal and regulatory framework and capacity building of media associations. Prior to joining IREX she worked for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative in Serbia as a staff attorney from 2005 to January 2009, and as a legal assistant for the Norwegian Refugee Council's Civil Rights Project from 2001 to 2005. Jelena has a degree from the Law Faculty, University of Belgrade.

Ivana Bjelic, Media Law and Associations Program Manager

Ivana Bjelic joined IREX in June 2009 to work on the legal and regulatory framework and capacity building of media associations. Prior to joining IREX she worked for USAID Competitiveness Project as a communication specialist for several months. From 2007 until 2009 she worked as a project manager at Media Center Belgrade implementing projects such as organization of International Press Institute (IPI) World Congress in Belgrade 2008, analysis of media reporting on elections and other media issues. Ivana has experience in working on radio and television and has a journalist degree from Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade.

Slavica Semenovic, Office Assistant

Slavica joined IREX in December 2008. Started out as an interpreter late 1975 at the rubber goods factory "Tigar" in Pirot, then over 11 years at the Nigerian Embassy in Belgrade. After the Embassy was closed, worked as a freelance interpreter through the Serbian Association of Scientific and Technical Translators and in 2004 joined the USAID funded Booz Allen Hamilton SEDP project and in 2007 on the start up of the USAID/Competitiveness Project.

Vladimir Milovanovic, System Administrator

Vladimir Milovanovic is a senior System Administrator. He spent 5 years in Canada providing support for intranet solutions for large companies such as Merrill Lynch, Universal Studios, Gillete corporation, etc. Currently, he works from Serbia providing support for local and remote clients all over the world (incl. Afghanistan, Haiti, Jordan, Uzbekistan, USA, Switzerland, Sweden, etc). He won numerous awards, for research in Physics, for Computer Science innovation and others. He is a member of Serbian Society of Geographic Explorers, Serbian Photographer's Union (USUF YU) and LOPSA (League of Professional System Administrators).