Guest Star of the Year in Slovenia - 2009 - Media campaign

Austria

Professionally: Born in 1985 in Klagenfurt, Austria, he started with ballet at the age of five. After graduating from secondary school and one year of community service, he has joined the Ljubljana ballet ensemble, which soon entrusted him with solo roles and made him a soloist of the Ljubljana ballet after three years. On stage, he has transformed himself into two different Princes – Shakespeare’s Romeo and Don Quixote’s Espada – and several other remarkable characters.

In 2008, he received the Lidia Wisijak Award from Slovenia for his interpretation of Romeo and in the same year the Kulturförderpreis des Landes Kärnten in Austria. Furthermore, he took a part in the RTV show "Stars Sing" with Karmen Stavec; they made it to 3rd place.

Privately: Otherwise, when not in the ballet studio, he is involved in sport, travelling, hanging out and partying with friends, etc. He thinks Slovenia has its very special own charm. It is small and nothing seems really far from his home town. He finds the people here very open-minded, friendly and honestly interested in a variety of things.

Ukraine

Professionally: A professional Latin-American and ballroom dancer, she comes from a small town called Lugansk. She moved to Slovenia five years ago for her dancing career and found an “optimal” dancing partner with whom, along with the coaching team, she made a winning combination. Since then she has won several titles including the National Champion in 2009.

However, results aren’t her greatest motivation: what matters more is contact with the audience. “We were surrounded by kids, the atmosphere in the hall reached its climax during our performance and that is what really excites me,” she said in an interview.

Apart from dancing, she is also one of Slovenia’s most sought-after models for photo shoots and fashion shows, representing an underwear manufacturer. She also holds the title of Miss Casino Kongo. A person with a diverse range of interests, she accepted an offer to host a TV show at a smaller private station, which also challenged her to improve her Slovene language skills.

Privately: Her rare moments of free time are dedicated for exploring Slovenia's rich natural environment. She observes that women in Ukraine pay more attention to how they look, as opposed to Slovenes who more often prefer comfort over elegance. She is recognized as always being positive and smiling.

The United States

Professionally: She is a freelancer active in various fields. During the years since she came from the United States in 1993, she has been working as a writer, translator, and columnist. In terms of accomplishments, she considers her career as a writer to be the most important. She won the 2007 Family Matters Award; her work has been translated into Italian, German, Hungarian, Bosnian, and Slovakian.

As an offshoot of that, she also enjoys acting as a sort of bridge between Slovenia and other cultures – particularly English-speaking cultures. Her recent memoir “Forbidden Bread” has been especially popular among the Slovenian-American community in the United States. She did a reading in San Francisco last summer, and will be going on a reading tour of the US “Slovenian belt” this spring. She finds it a delightful irony to be a non-Slovenian (at least ethnically speaking) narrating a story of Slovenia to ethnic Slovenians in America. She also has contributed to Slovenian culture by translating many of its most treasured authors, including “Difficult Spring” by Boris Pahor. As a columnist and essayist, she has contributed over the years to lively public debates about education, culture and politics in Slovenia.

Privately: A dual citizen, after 17 years in Slovenia she hardly thinks of herself as an “ex-pat” anymore.

She has many hobbies, from playing tennis to bridge at the Tivoli Bridge Club. Alpine walking is also one of her passions. She considers a wonderful place to live with a uniquely pleasant quality of life. “What Slovenia gave me was the opportunity to discover myself, to discover what I really like to do in life,” she comments on the greatest gift she had received from the country. This has been the greatest gift.

Born in China, UK Citizen

Professionally: En Shao started to learn about music at a very young age, learning to play both piano and violin at ages 4 and 5, respectively. His mother was also a keen musician, teaching it at a local school, and he inherited that passion; by the age of 18 he was already working as a composer, pianist and percussionist with a local orchestra. After graduating from the Beijing Conservatory, he worked with several orchestras in China before moving to England to further his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, with the Edward Van Beinum Foundation Scholarship in 1988.

After graduation, he had several posts in Europe, including Spain, Ireland, and England, and performed in 36 countries. Following that, he spent several years in Macao. Beside Slovenia, he has positions in both Taiwan and mainland China (as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra). He considers travelling to many different places across the world and as one of the best parts of the job.

Privately: En Shao has a wide range of interests includes Chinese cuisine, contemporary interior design and architecture and jazz. He also takes a particular interest in environmental issues. Is Slovenia, he particularly enjoys rich culture and history, good water and fresh air with beautiful mountainous landscapes.

Egypt

After years of experience as the main financial supervisor of Egyptian energy provider group, El Sewedy Cables, Mr Abdallah took on the financial leadership of company Iskraemeco in Kranj. He holds an MBA in Economics and is a dedicated activist in many expert associations for accountancy, revision and tax advisory.

Mr Abdallah is a manager with great leadership skills and a wealth of international experience. He is considered a communicative, adaptive, persistent and innovative and motivated person, who can also be an excellent negotiator. His positive and motivating impact on the team also left a mark among his associates, who say that they have a person whom they can trust, enjoy cooperating with and who has broadened their way of thinking.

Mr Abdallah’s biggest achievement in Iskraemeco is that the company has finally become profitable, which is attributed to many smart decisions. Furthermore, the company adopted international accountancy reporting standards in only six months with very limited resources.

Privately: He lives in Ljubljana. His wife and children followed him a year after he took the job in Slovenia. The two daughters attend an international school in Ljubljana, while his young son attends a Slovenian kindergarden.

Germany

Professionally: Rudolf Klötscher has been working for home appliances makers since he finished his studies at the University of Nürnberg. After joining BSH, he started as product manager, then head of Product Marketing and the director of the Water Treatment division. The international character of his work took him to the USA, China, South East Asia and Japan.

His career ultimately led him to Slovenia in 2008. He is responsible for the successful expansion of the Bosch Siemens Home Appliances group from Slovenia to other South European markets, as well as the notable expansion of the BSH market shares in these markets despite the recent economic crisis, especially in the Slovenian market. He is managing the company covering nine very different markets and countries in the so-called Adriatic East region. He is also a board member on the Slovenian-German Chamber of Commerce.

Privately: He lives in Ljubljana together with his wife, with whom he enjoys the "minimum of leisure time" in the beautiful countryside. Their passion is also the excellent cuisine and wine in different parts of Slovenia. Last but not least, he is also trying to speak Slovene at least half as well as his wife. Mr Klötscher also loves skiing and badminton; he has tried to start golfing, inspired by the excellent courses here. He says he has learnt the importance and possibility of combining of working time and leisure in Slovenia, which is not the case in his homeland.

Germany

Professionally: Ms Rantzen excels with 20 years of experience in a network of German Chambers of Commerce throughout the world. Her greatest achievement in Slovenia thus far has been the establishment of the bilateral chamber and strengthening the network of Slovenian and German companies, which resulted in nearly 40% increase of trade between the countries during the seven years of her work in Slovenia.

From 2006, she has been leading Slovenian-German Chamber of Commerce, an association with 154 members and 15 employees. One aspect of her work that she adores is constantly meeting new people.

Privately: She spends most of her free time in nature. As an enthusiastic mountaineer, she regularly runs to Rožnik Hill after work and for the weekend she tends to seek peace and tranquillity in the Slovenian mountains. She also enjoys skiing, which he has learnt here, and visiting local spas. Another one of her passions is travelling. Variety in cultures, languages, dances and people enriches her life. She is fond of books, especially German and Portuguese.

On arrival, she was surprised by Slovenia as she had very few previous impressions of it. She finds Slovenes open, nice people, who are willing to help at any time, and (similar to Germans) who might be a little reserved at first, but are then quickly ready to make lasting friendships, especially when a glass of good wine and food is on the table. Still sometimes she misses the breezy northern German coast, the sound of seagulls and an Eastern Frisian cup of tea.

The United Kingdom

Professionally: Ms Stuart is the director of Slovenia’s first international commercial real estate company. The company was launched in February 2008, and has fast become the dominant player in commercial real estate, including sales of hotels, land, restaurants, office projects and industrial property.

Other activities include consulting for banks and institutional investors, and representing tenants for international firms looking for premises in Slovenia. The company’s biggest achievement to date is the sale of the Bellevue Hotel in Ljubljana to a Luxembourg fund, which has plans to restore and develop the property into 5-star luxury hotel. She enjoys the daily challenges of working in an interesting and rapidly changing market. She has a monthly column in Finance, Slovenia’s daily financial newspaper, and contributes in-depth articles on the real estate industry.

Privately: After living in Spain, Greece, Sweden and Austria, she moved to Slovenia in 2006, to enjoy life in the “last green jewel of Europe,” where she dedicates her free time to skiing in winter and spending time on her boat in summer. There are many things she likes about Slovenia: the relaxed way of life, the outdoors and the beautiful countryside. Her short-term ambition is to improve her Slovene. She has an eight-year-old son, who attends the British School and is currently in his fourth year of training with the Triglav ski team in Kranj.

Professionally: Ahmed Farouk has been the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Slovenia since September 2007. Previously, he took part in the Egyptian Delegation that was involved in the peace process in the Middle East between 1993 and 1994 (the Gaza-Jericho Agreement). This is but one item on Mr Farouk’s enviable list of achievements.

He helped to bring the first FDI from Egypt to Slovenia through El Sewedy Group and Iskra Emeko CO, as well as sending the first FDI to Egypt from Slovenia through the Luka Koper port and the port of Alexandria, which resulted in a cold chain between the two ports for fruit and vegetable exports. He has established a business council between the chambers of commerce, encouraged many Egyptians to invest in Slovenia and thus opened new markets for Slovenian products in the Middle East. He also helped in establishing the Slovene-Egyptian Business Women’s Association.

In the cultural field he was, among others, involved in Egyptian cultural year in Ljubljana to Slovenia with films, concerts and the “Pharaonic Renaissance,” the first exhibition ever in Slovenia showcasing original Egyptian pieces.

He emphatically states that Slovenia and Egypt had enjoyed excellent relations since 1991, which is something that continues even to this day at all the highest levels. Privately: Mr Farouk hobbies include playing the piano and doing all kinds of sport, particularly squash.

Professionally: Thanks to Mr Seshadri, the newly established Indian Embassy is now completely operational, not only for visa and consular needs, but in deepening relations in the political, economic, cultural, scientific, technological and other spheres.

The past year witnessed many successful events, such as the visit of the Minister of State for External Affairs of India Shrimati Preneet Kaur who participated in the Bled Strategic Forum and also held bilateral meetings. The visit was returned by a delegation from the newly established Slovene Parliamentary Friendship Group, soon followed by a strong business delegation.

Business has progressed: 14 small scale Indian companies participated for the first time in the International Trade Fair in Celje. A 15-member Slovene business delegation also visited India in December. Most importantly, bilateral trade witnessed a sharp rise of 30% last year even during a period of global downturn. There was also much activity in the cultural and intellectual spheres. Beside Indian performers visiting Slovenia, it is essential to mention the international conference, an interactive Round Table on Non-violence, and most importantly, the establishment of a Hindi chair in the Faculty of Arts in the University of Ljubljana.

Privately: Despite full engagement in the embassy activities, he finds some time to enjoy the country with his wife Vidya, who too has been actively involved in the work of Slovene International Ladies Association (SILA), its annual charity bazaar and much else.

Mr Filipovski is a lawyer by education and has additionally specialised in the fields of Business law, Trade law and Penal law: has been researching extradition and transfer of convicts according to European conventions. Before taking on the post of Ambassador to Slovenia in 2006, he has worked as an attorney. He was also a member of Judicial council of the Macedonian Government and an affiliate member of Eurolegal European attorney association. Already in 2005, he has initiated the Slovene-Macedonian business Club.

Ambassador Filipovski’s effort in enhancing economic ties has resulted in many successful ventures; Slovenia has become one of the biggest investors in the southernmost former Yugoslav republic. He also made a notable positive impact on cultural exchange between the two countries.

Privately: A family man, father of two kids, who as well enjoy spending time in the nature, which he finds plenty here in Slovenia, particularly in Trenta, Soča and Logarska valleys or Kozjansko natural park. His favourite sports are skiing and bicycling. He respects the environmental awareness of Slovenes as well as their attitude for sports, both in terms of daily recreation and top achievements.

Professionally: Mr Zhaolin is a professional diplomat and has served in many countries in Europe and Asia. From 2000 to 2004, he was the Chinese Ambassador to Croatia. Since 2007, he has been the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Slovenia.

During his term, he has actively committed himself to promoting and deepening the relations of friendship and cooperation between the countries. His efforts resulted in many high-level visits: both President Türk and former Prime Minister Janša visited China during Zhaolin’s term, while Slovenia hosted Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the National Committee of the Political Consultative Conference and Hui Liangi, Vice-Premier of the State Council.

In economy, trade relations have gone steeply upwards, with over USD 1 bn trade in 2008; interest in mutual investment has also risen sharply. Cooperation in culture, education, technology, defence, agriculture and tourism is also expanding. Through his efforts, the Confucius Institute will soon be open within the University of Ljubljana; this will serve as a platform for better communication and understanding between the countries.

He was excited to learn that the globalisation has made China and Slovenia only a ten-hour flight from each other. Zhi Zhaolin sincerely hopes that Slovenian entrepreneurs will seize the opportunity to take advantage of the good political relations, make an early decision to enter Chinese market and, at the same time, promote relations of friendship and cooperation between the countries.

Privately: Most of all, he enjoys reading and walking.

Slovak Republic

Professionally: Hudač and his training methods are responsible for the brilliant career of Petra Majdič, the Slovenian cross-country skiing diva who won the bronze at this year’s Olympic Games. Before taking up coaching, Hudač was a member of the Slovak national team until the Nagano Olympic Games in 1998.

Accepting his current role meant a tough challenge ahead. In doing so, he became responsible for the career of by far the best Slovenian in the history of cross-country skiing and someone who regarded her previous coach as a second father. But Hudač in¬stantly proved his doubters wrong. Under his super¬vision, the perfor¬mances of Majdič and the other team members took a giant leap forward ultimately leading her to her current excellent results.

Privately: He lives in Slovenia together with his wife and a daughter, mostly spending his rare free moments at his home in Trzin, near Ljubljana. Comparing to his home country to Slovenia, he notices that while the landscapes are similar, the standard of living is slightly higher here. He speaks Slovene fluently.

Russia

Professionally: Ljudmila Bodnieva came to Slovenia in 2003 after signing for the Krim Handball Club. One of the best handball players at her position, she has been voted six times in a row as the best world and European pivot, and is one of the go-to players for both her club and the Russian national handball team.

The club’s high European goals and winning mentality are the things that keep her going despite occasional losses. Since playing for Krim, she has won international medals with the Russian handball team and has certainly become a crowd favourite in Ljubljana – one that will continue to write Krim’s story of success.

Privately: Since coming to Slovenia, she has quickly adapted to the local lifestyle, which also includes the mandatory meeting of friends for a cup of coffee. She says living in a foreign country and playing handball in a team in which virtually every player speaks a different language is not only exciting, but also very challenging, yet she would not want to have it any other way.

Canada

Professionally: Glenn Hoag was born in the north of the province of Québec in a forestry town to a French-speaking mother and an English-speaking father. His devotion to sports started at a young age. He played hockey until the age of 15 and then moved on to learn and play volleyball. In 1981, he joined the national team and played in the 1984 Olympics, followed by nine more years as a professional. After his successful career as a player, he started coaching at the Université de Sherbrooke. He has a bachelor’s degree in physical education and is a Level 4 certified coach.

His arrival in Slovenia seemed to have an immediate effect, as the ACH Volley club won the Slovene Cup in December 2008 and has hold that title ever since. ACH Volley has recently qualified for the Final 4 tournament.

Privately: He has two boys, Christopher and Nicholas. His wife is a Canadian of Slovenian descent. He loves the forest, enjoys fishing and reading biographies, as he is “really interested in people and how they came to be known.” He considers Slovenia very much like his home in Québec as the people here are very industrious and enjoy nature.

Switzerland

Professionally: Born in the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, which lies in the French part of Switzerland, Gilles studied sport math and physics. As with many professional athletes, Gilles’s life has been devoted to sport; he started with judo and was a state champion, then did some track and field and was again a state champion in running. He then turned to BMX races and once more proved that he was the racer to beat by winning the state champion title.

After that, he tried Tchoukball (pronounced chukeball), which is an indoor team sport developed in the 1970s. That was followed by snowboarding in 1992 and has remained with it ever since. In 2001 and 2002, he became a world champion and won the world tour in the 2001–2002 season. He reached the podium 36 times in World Cup ISF and FIS until he finally bid farewell to the sport he loves so much after 16 years in order to pass what he had learnt on to younger generations.

Privately: His hobbies besides sport include performing circus acts –something he learnt while attending a circus school in Budapest; he especially enjoys juggling and unicycling. He is very fond of Slovenia, saying it is a “small country with a lot to see and which has to become better known in Western Europe.” It reminds him of Switzerland but with smaller mountains and one rather important distinction – the sea, which to a lover of all things connected to surfing simply makes a world of difference.