Jelena Zvizdojević was born in Podgorica on September 1, 1979.
She enrolled at the University of Montenegro’s Faculty of Economics in 1998, where she graduated in 2002, specializing in “Entrepreneurship and Business” with an average grade of 9.18. During her studies, she was recognized multiple times by the Faculty of Economics and the University of Montenegro as one of the top students in her generation, receiving various awards. As a government scholarship recipient, she pursued postgraduate studies in entrepreneurial economics in 2002, focusing on “International Financial Institutions and the EU” as a member of the sixth generation of students at the Faculty of Economics in Podgorica. She completed her master’s degree in 2005, with a thesis on the topic of “Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union,” with a special emphasis on Montenegro.
In the academic year 2011/2012, she began her doctoral studies in “International Economics” at the Faculty of International Economics, Finance, and Business at the University of Donja Gorica, Podgorica. She successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled “Statistical Analysis of Agriculture” in 2018.
While still a student, she started working at the Montenegro Business Alliance. From September 2002 to June 2011, she worked at the Center for Applied Research and Analysis and later at the Institute for Strategic Studies and Projections, initially as a researcher and later as an analyst. From June 2011 to June 2018, she worked at the Statistical Office of Montenegro as an Assistant Director for the Sector of Agriculture Statistics, Fisheries, Business Statistics, Environmental Statistics, and Forestry. Since January 2019, she has been working as a consultant and expert in the fields of economics and statistics, collaborating with both domestic and international institutions.
Throughout her career, she has coordinated and led numerous domestic and international research projects, and has been involved in the development of strategic documents for the Statistical Office and the Government of Montenegro. Her work also included collaboration with international institutions such as Eurostat, UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank, FAO, IRD, and USAID.
Jelena Zvizdojević holds a broker’s license and is an ISO assessor.
She is the author and co-author of 30 professional papers published in domestic and international journals and publications. Additionally, she authored the publication “Guidelines for the Preparation of Strategic Documents” created for the Government of Montenegro to facilitate more precise planning of the strategic document development process, from inception to final approval by the Government. She has participated in numerous domestic and international conferences and roundtable discussions and has undertaken several study visits abroad (Macedonia, Serbia, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Washington, Hungary, Austria, Poland).
She is a member of the Montenegro Economist Society.
From 2011 to 2018, she was a member of International Working Groups for Agriculture, Fisheries, Environmental, and Business Statistics at EUROSTAT.
For five years, she led the subgroup “Agricultural Statistics, Environmental Statistics, Registries, and Classification” within Chapter 18 – Statistics. She was also a member of the negotiation Chapter 11 – Agriculture and Rural Development for five years.
Jelena Zvizdojević is proficient in English and skilled in using Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, Power Point…) and statistical software such as SPSS and E-views for data processing and analysis.