Bogoljub Karić

Bogoljub Karić Audio|Sr-Bogoljub Karic.ogg|listen (Serbian: Богољуб Карић, IPA2|'bɔgɔʎub 'ka:riʨ) is a businessman and politician from Serbia.

Biography

Youth

Born on January 17, 1954 in Peć, Kosovo, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia, to parents Janićije Karić and Danica Kuzmanović, Bogoljub completed elementary (grades 1-8) and high school (grades 9-12) in his hometown. He graduated in Geography from Prirodno-matematički fakultet (Science college) in Priština. He got his Master's Degree in economy at University of Niš.

Bogoljub Karic grew up in a large family of 5 children. He has three older brothers: Sreten, Dragomir, and Zoran, as well as a younger sister Olivera.

Business

President of the Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Serbia and Montenegro Founder of the BK (Astra) Group Bogoljub Karić has created one of the largest privately owned multinational companies in Eastern Europe, covering numerous industry sectors.

The family dates back 400 years, having an established history and tradition of hand-craft, manufacturing and trade.

Taking advantage of the relative liberalisation in Yugoslavia in the early seventies and the allowing of opening of small workshops with no more than ten employees, Mr. Bogoljub Karić, then a student, re-established the workshop of his ancestors, together with his three brothers and sister. This metal factory that was established in the early seventies quickly transcended these confines and became the first real private business venture in Yugoslavia. It is from this very small manufacturing company that Mr. Karić has built a business empire which today has a yearly turnover expressed in billions of dollars.

During a period of two decades, Karić formed one of the largest privately owned corporations in Central and Eastern Europe. In the mid-eighties, he moved his business activities from Peć to Belgrade and then continued to expand into new markets in Russia and CIS countries, Western Europe, North and South America and Asia. The BK or Astra Group was especially successful in Russia and the CIS, where it quickly became one of the major privately owned groups and where it has built millions of square meters of office space, banks, hospitals, factories, roads, and bridges. Karić founded and chaired the first private bank in Yugoslavia, the first two private TV stations, the most important Internet provider and has introduced mobile telephony in Serbia, through the company “Mobtel”, which he founded in 1994 and which is today the second most important mobile telephony provider in Serbia.

Karić has pioneered new technologies in Serbia, thus promoting its modernization and his companies have always offered state-of the art services to the citizens of Serbia.

The Astra (BK) Group is composed of the following industry sectors:
* manufacturing, civil engineering and constructing
* International wholesales export-import trading
* Telecommunications and electronic media (GSM and NMT mobile telephony, internet services, alphanumeric paging)
* Banking and finance
* Media which includes television, radio, magazines and newspapers
* Science and education Karić is the founder and owner of BK University.
* Charitable activities The BK Foundation funds humanitarian aid in Yugoslavia and other countries. It is focused on helping children, refugees and provides scholarships for disadvantaged and talented students. The activities of the Foundation are also centered on the promotion of cultural values.

Karić initiated two years ago the creation of the Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Yugoslavia, the first true association of private businessmen in Yugoslavia set up since World War II.

Education and Science Work

Karić has been a visiting professor in several faculties in the country and abroad. Many of these lectures are published in various magazines. He is author of many books which focus on analysis of Private Business, Finance and Financial Management.

Political and Social Activities

Karić is very active in domestic and international social and political circles. He has a strong reputation in the highest political institutions worldwide and has met with many Heads of State, Presidents, Senators, influential businessmen of the worlds most significant companies, media, humanitarian and other non-government organizations and institutions.

The philosophies that Karić expresses in these meetings are based on the need for development of relationship between people irrespective of ethnic origin, protection of human rights as foundation for democracy and economic development of all countries around the world. He is also actively promoting the democratic processes in Yugoslavia and for the integration of Yugoslavia, or Serbia and Montenegro, as the new state union is now called, in the European integrations, as well as other international organizations and institutions.

The goals of these activities are to turn the Balkans, i.e. the South East Europe region into a prosperous region of Europe, and the prerequisites are, according to Karić, to ensure the dominant role of economy and economic cooperation, that are the sole factors that can counter nationalistic policies and confrontation. It is with that goal in mind that Karić and his companies have started many programs of cooperation with Kosovo and all other regions of Serbia with ethnically mixed population, as well as intensive contacts with neighbours, such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia.

Karić ran for President of Serbia in the June 2004 Presidential Election, polling nearly 20% of the vote. His message was on the supremacy of economy over politics, the need to fundamentally transform Serbian society into a modern European democracy and revitalise its economy.

Karić subsequently formed and registered his political party Serbian Strength Movement (MSS) which participated in the local elections of September 2004. At these elections, the MSS, although formed barely a month before the elections, had a surprisingly good showing, establishing itself firmly in the center of the democratic bloc of political forces in Serbia. Its representatives, in coalition with other democratic forces are part of many municipal councils (including that of the capital Belgrade), and it has several deputies and ministers in the Provincial Government of the Autonomous Province of Voivodina.

Karic family

Karić rarely fails to mention his own family in public appearances, often openly using it as a political prop.

Immediate family

* Milanka Babić - wife of Bogoljub Karić. Born in Peć and raised, as she says "in patriotic spirit and traditional system of values". She finished Law School and is one of the founders as well as the president of Karić Foundation. She recorded a compact disk "Bistrica", singing Serbian traditional roots-folk songs. She and Bogoljub have 4 children - a son and three daughters:

:* Nebojša Karić (born in 1979).

:* Nadežda "Neda" Karić (1981).

:* Jelena Karić (1982).

:* Danica Karić (1985). Has recorded 3 albums with her cousin Danijela, they have been singing from 1998 and have been successful in their music ventures. [www.dnd.co.yu] They both played numerous piano concerts and won numerous piano competitions in their youth. Danica is married to the Serbian singer Daniel Djokic.

Extended family

reten Karić

He is the oldest brother of Bogoljub Karić. He has three children with his current wife and a son from a previous marriage. He and his wife run the Karić family businesses in Cyprus.

*Dubravka Safner - Sreten's first wife, Karić has used her Croatian ethnicity in various political soundbites as proof of his family's openness to different nationalities. She gave birth to Sreten's first son:::* Goran Karić (born 1974), married Ivana Mišković, the only child of another Serbian tycoon Miroslav Mišković.

* Slavica Grbović - Sreten's current wife. According to her official bio she worked in the Karic Foundation until 1992, when she and Sreten moved to Cyprus. She gave birth to 3 children:

::*Bojan Karić (1979) - His claim to fame was the on-again off-again relationship with turbofolk star, Jelena Karleuša. They married in September 2004 but got divorced only 4 months later. The episode inspired a tabloid feeding frenzy in Serbia when reports of Karleuša being despised by Bojan's mother Slavica hit the press. Three years later, on July 25, 2007, Bojan Karic married Maša Nikolić. She is educated, from a respected family, and has a successful business career. Maša is a granddaughter of the famous ambassador Vladimir Rolović, daughter of the renowned movie director and cinematographer Bozidar Nikolić.

::*Gordana Karić (1982)

::*Stefan Karić (1985) - He came in the news for the first time after crashing a BMW (owned by his older brother Bojan) into a lamp post in Belgrade neighbourhood of Dedinje on April 25, 2005. The only other passenger in the car, Stanislava Pavlović, was severely injured. Stefan was found to have been intoxicated and driving at speed of 148km/h at the time of the accident. On June 6, 2007, Second Municipal Court in Belgrade sentenced Stefan Karić to one year in prison, but he did not serve his sentence. Bribery was suspected but the Karic Family denies such allegations [http://www.blic.co.yu/hronika.php?id=5272]

Dragomir Karić

Another Bogoljub Karić's brother and one of his closest associates. He is the driving force behind the operations in Russia, and has made a fortune in Russia after moving there in 1987. Married, has four children and seven grandchildren.

*Hafa Mulić - Dragomir's wife is a Bosniak. She was 17-year-old Pop Singer when they met in Livno, Herzegovina. They met when Dragomir's band and his brothers performed there and persuaded her to join their band Blue Stars. She married Dragomir the same year they met, released a number of CDs, and gave birth to 4 children:

::*Sasha D. Karić (1971)

::*Simon Karic (1974)

::*Jugoslav Karić (1979)

::*Danijela Karić Martać (1984)

Zoran Karić

Bogoljub Karić's sibling who runs his brother's business in Vienna and spends time in London. His wife wrote a cookbook with traditional Kosovan recipes. He has four children.

::*Jefimija Karić Radenović

::*Ana Karić

::*Vladan Karić

::*Dusan Karić

Olivera Karić

The only sister of Bogoljub Karić. She works in the Karić Foundation and in BK University. She lives in London and Belgrade. She is married and has three children.

::*Aleksandra Nedeljković

::*Aleksandar Nedeljković

::*Gorica Nedeljković

References

* [http://snagasrbije.blogspot.com Strengths of Serbia Movement BUNT blog]
* [http://www.youtube.com/buntbogoljub Strengths of Serbia Movement Youtube page]
* [http://www.milankakaric.com Official web site of presidential candidate Milanka Karic]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/22944801@N04/ Strengths of Serbia Movement Flickr page]
* [http://www.snagasrbije.com/ Strengths of Serbia Movement web site]
* [http://www.kandidaturabogoljubkaric.com/ Presidential election campaign web site]
* [http://www.karicfoundation.com/ Karić Foundation]
* [http://www.bkgroup.com/ BK Group]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/337191.stm|BBC World Media Watch: Karic as Serbian Minister Without Portfolio in Slobodan Milosevic's government]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1602323.stm|BBC News: Serbian bank crisis as owner flees]
* [http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/u_fokusu.php?id=25 Аffair Моbtel]
* [http://www.snagasrbije.com/pdfs/istina%20bk%20eng.wmv Video "The truth Bogoljub Karic" Size 35Мb]
* [http://www.snagasrbije.com Web the Power of Serbia Movement]