Management

A deeper sense and promise of Petrol is to improve the quality of life.

Nada Drobne Popović, President of the Management Board

Nada Drobne Popović (born in 1975) holds a master’s degree in administrative sciences. In 1996 she joined RLS d.o.o. and was appointed Assistant Director of the company in 2001. In 2006 Ms Drobne Popović obtained her master’s degree from the Faculty of Governmental and European Studies, Brdo pri Kranju. She continued her career joining SŽ ŽGP d.d. in 2008, where she held a position of Business Director from 2009 until 2012 when she became Director of Economics, and later Assistant General Manager of Slovenske železnice d.o.o. In 2013 she joined the Slovenian State Holding Company, and was later, in October 2015, appointed Member of its Management Board responsible for corporate management of capital investments, finance, IT, acquisitions and sales. Ms Drobne Popović joined SIJ Acroni d.o.o in June 2018 as Financial Director. The Supervisory Board of Petrol d.d., Ljubljana appointed her President of the Management Board of Petrol d.d., Ljubljana for a five-year term of office beginning on 11st February, 2020.

Matija Bitenc, Member of the Management Board

Matija Bitenc (born in 1980) holds a master’s degree in economic sciences. After completing his master’s degree, Mr Bitenc joined Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d. in 2006 as Property Manager. In 2013 he was appointed Deputy Director of Risk Management and Head of Business Intelligence. In addition to this, he was named Head of Capital Modelling and Risk Analytics in 2014. From 2015 until 2017 he held a position of Head of Transaction Consulting with Ernst & Young svetovanje d.o.o., Corporate Finance. In 2017 he joined Deloitte Svetovanje d.o.o. as Assistant Director in charge of the Adriatic Region, Financial Consulting Department. On 11th March 2020 Mr Bitenc started the post of Member of the Management Board of Petrol, responsible for Finance, Information and Risk.

Jože Bajuk, Member of the Management Board

Jože Bajuk (born in 1974) holds a master’s degree in sociology. After graduating from the University of Law, Mr Bajuk joined Socius d.d. in 1998 as Head of Projects. In 2004 he received his master’s degree in sociology from the Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana. In 2007 he was appointed Regional Director at the Sportina Group.  Between 2008 and 2010 he was Head of Legal Department in Poteza skupina d.d. Between 2010 and 2012 he was Head of Legal Department in PDP d.d. From July 2012 until March 2020 he held the positions of Procurator of the company, Investments, Production and Maintenance Director, and Regional Director with Interenergo d.o.o. On 11th March 2020 Mr Bajuk started the post of Member of the Management Board of Petrol, responsible for the areas of Energy, Solutions, Logistics and Operations.

Since 2005 Mr Bajuk has been a lecturer for the Association of Works Councils of Slovenia. His bibliography consists of 17 articles and books published between 1997 and 2009. In the period from 2003 to 2005 he was active as a member or president of various supervisory boards.

Jože Smolič, Member of the Management Board

Jože Smolič (b. 1967) holds a master’s degree in business administration. He has been building his career in trade, marketing, promotion and sales at Petrol since 1989. Throughout his career so far, he has gained extensive experience in retail management, staff management, project work, the development of new sales networks and markets, and the development of new retail outlet types and concepts. From 2002 to 2011, he led the Ljubljana-Kranj regional unit as Director of Retail. He worked as Director of Retail for the Petrol Group from 2011 to 2014, after which he took over management of the Petrol Oti Kosovo subsidiary, while also serving as Director of the Petrol Group’s Strategic Activities. In 2015, he started managing strategic projects and the development of new business formats in the Retail Outlet Development division, which he then led from 1 July 2020 onward. On 27 August 2020, the Supervisory Board appointed him as the Member of the Management Board in charge of sales.

Zoran Gračner, Member of the Management Board, Labor Director

Zoran Gračner (born in 1970) has a master's degree in management and organization and a university degree in mechanical engineering. He has been working at Petrol since 2005 in the field of Energy and Environmental Services. He is the director of the Heating Systems sector. From 2013 onwards, he was the President of the Workers' Council of Petrol d.d., Ljubljana for two terms and a member of the Supervisory Board of Petrol d.d., Ljubljana and the Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board.

He was appointed for a 5-year term of office from 11 December 2020. In terms of content, he covers the representation of workers' interests in relation to human resource, and social issues and relationships, formal procedures and methods of cooperation between the administration and employees.