Mirna Karzen

Co-founder and President Social Innovation Laboratory (SIL)

Mirna has almost twenty years of experience in international, regional and local development, as well as an extensive research and policy development knowledge specifically related to socio-economic issues of the Western Balkan region. With her two colleagues from Serbia and Macedonia, she has launched SIL a year ago with the attempt to define, promote and map social innovation (a nascent concept in the region), develop a network of social innovators, as well as contribute to the development of policy practices related to social innovation in the Western Balkans. Parallel to her involvement with SIL, Mirna is also acting as a co-owner and executive director of Karzen and Karzen d.o.o., a consulting and regional development firm based in Croatia. After receiving her Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, she has worked with an extensive list of well respected organizations including; ECORYS, WYG International Inc., UNDP, the Urban Institute, Rockefeller Brother’s fund, Open Society Institute, and many others. Over the past decade, she has been actively involved in the area of EU funds/project preparation, management, education and programme planning funds. Within this area of work, she has also designed and implemented numerous training programmes for public bodies, the private sector and CSOs, including an innovative on-line e-mentorship course, which is available for different sector representatives, interested in developing their own applications for EU Funds in a more personalized and effective way. She has successfully prepared applications for IPA CBC and other EU programmes and has acted as an evaluator for the Grundtvig programme.