Duško Knežević

Duško Knežević (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Душко Кнежевић) is the founder and president of the board of directors of Atlas Group Corporation (AGC). AGC is the largest financial group in Montenegro consisting of dozens of companies with far-ranging business interest, including banks and financial companies in Serbia, Cyprus, Russia and Great Britain. In addition to his business interests,^[1] he is the founder and president of the board of two business oriented universities, in Montenegro and in Serbia.In April 2010, Duško Knežević became a member of Clinton Global Initiative,^[2] President Clinton’s pro bono organization that is gathering private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other global leaders to effectively confront the world’s most pressing problems.^[3][4][5] Duško Knežević founded the Atlas Foundation in 2010. The mission of the Foundation is to support the creation of new societal values and economic empowerment of citizens through enhancement of business environment and corporate social responsible practices. Improving regional cooperation is one of the key goals of the Atlas Foundation. Duško Knežević organised the Inaugural Conference “Balkan Networking for Social Empowerment of South-Eastern Europe”^[6] that was held in Budva in May 2011, under the auspices of the Government of Montenegro and Atlas Foundation, and in partnership with Clinton Global Initiative. The main objective of this event was to address pressing challenges facing South-Eastern Europe through developing cross-border and new models of cross-sector cooperation.

Personal life

Knežević completed elementary and high school in Titograd (now Podgorica). He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Banking at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, and a Master of Science in Banking and Finance, also at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. After defending with merits his doctorate dissertation 'Legal and economic prerequisites of sustainability of pension insurance system' at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, Duško Knežević was awarded a scientific degree Doctor of Legal and Economic Studies. He lectures in finance-related subjects at the UNION University.^[7]

Atlas Group

Since founding Atlas Group 20 years ago in Montenegro, he has expanded the company’s range of interests. AGC presently consists of more than 30 companies that include banks, finance, real estate, construction, brewery, tourism and media companies. In 2010, World Finance magazine voted AGC the best financial group in Montenegro and Atlasmont Bank, a member of the Group, the best bank in Montenegro.^[8]

Major entities of AGC include:

• Atlasmont Bank Montenegro
• Montenegrin stock exchange
• Invest Bank Montenegro
• University Mediterran
• Atlasmont Fund (investment fund company)
• Atlas Life (insurance company)
• Atlas Penzije (pension fund)
• FinInvest Montenegro (real estate and construction firm)
• Radio Television Atlas Montenegro
• Meljine Health & Tourism Complex
• Atlas Foundation

AGC is majority owner of NEX Montenegro Stock Exchange, one of two stock exchanges in Montenegro.

In recent years, AGC has expanded the scope of its financial activities to the international level and now includes:

• Atlas Capital Financial Services Cyprus, fully compliant with the EU - MiFID Directive and FSA regulated company in UK
• AMB Bank in Russia

On the international level, AGC is active in carbon and foreign exchange trading, as well as the management of private pension funds and provision of life insurance.

Recent Projects

Duško Knežević, the Atlas Group president, speaks at ceremony of 15th anniversary of Atlas System

FinInvest Montenegro in collaboration with Capital Investments, a company owned by the royal family in Abu Dhabi, is completing a 180 million euro residential business complex investment in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital. In addition, FinInvest Montenegro compaaniy stands behind a major health-tourism project in Meljine, on Montenegro’s Adriatic Coast. Also he is the founder of Atlas Capital Forex. Atlas Capital Forex

Higher education

Duško Knežević is the founder and president of the board of:

• University "Mediterranean" – the first private university in Montenegro, and
• the Belgrade Banking Academy, the only one institution of these kinds in Serbia and in the Region.

He is also a regular lecturer in finance-related subjects at the University UNION in Belgrade, Serbia.

Sports

As a young man, he played for the several basketball clubs. His fledgling basketball career was cut short by injury. He then moved from player to referee, advancing in this regard to a federal-level referee in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1992, he became president of the well-known Red Star Waterpolo Club. Under his leadership, Red Star won the championship title in the former Yugoslav against its longtime rival Partizan. Four years later, as director of the Olympic Waterpolo Team of Yugoslavia, he led the team to the summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States.

In 2003 he founded the first-league basketball club Atlas, which he directed and led to competition in the European Uleb Cup. He also served as a member of the Executive Board of the Basketball Union of Serbia and Montenegro (before Montenegro became an independent country). In 2004, he founded a new league called the Atlas Pils YUBA League, as part of an effort to revive Serbia’s then struggling basketball legacy. In 2005 he was president of Board of EuroBasket 2005 that has successfully organized European Basketball Championship in Belgrade 2005.

Paper works, articles and books

• Fernando Diz, Hasan Hanic, Duško Knezević: “On the Black-Scholes Model and why Scholes and Merton won the Nobel Prize”, work presented in the Symposium Financial Innovations, November 1997
• Duško Knežević, “Selection of Strategic Partner for Atlas Bank”, work presented at the Round Table “Privatization of Banks in Serbia – four years later”, Belgrade, 17 May 2005, printed for conference proceedings, Belgrade Banking Academy and Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade, pages 131-133
• D. Knežević, “Credit Insurance”, Belgrade Banking Academy Belgrade, 2007.
• D. Knežević, M. Jovović and I. Džaković, “Credit Insurance”, Sixth International Symposium “New Products in Insurance Market”, Association of Actuaries of Serbia and Faculty of Economics, Zlatibor 2008.
• S. Stefanović, D. Knežević, “Secondary Mortgage Markets and Instruments – Review of Experiences of European Union Countries,” conference proceedings from international science convention Banking Products and Services Market in Serbia, Belgrade Banking Academy, Belgrade, 2008
• Duško Knežević, “Businesses in the region must cooperate with foreign investors”, World Finance Magazine, edition September–October 2010 ^[9][10]

References

• Knežević's interview at World Finance
• Knežević becomes the Clinton Global Initiative member
• Knežević's interview on Clinton Global Initiative membership at daily newspaper Pobjeda
• Knežević at Clinton Global Initiative meeting
• Knežević's interview on Montenegro economics and investments at Analitika informative portal from Montenegro
• Knežević's interview on Montenegro Stock Exchange at SEEbiz
• Knežević's interview on Montenegro Stock Exchange unification at SEEbiz
• Knežević's interview (part 1) at RTS, June 2010 (video)
• Knežević's interview (part 2) at RTS, June 2010 (video)
• Turner International negotiations with Atlas Group in Montenegro, Atlas TV news report, September 2010 (video)
• Balkan Networking, the Inaugural Conference, Dusko Knezevic, Atlas Group, Budva, Montenegro, May 22, 2011 (video)
• Duško Knežević, President of Atlas Foundation