After 8 years at Social Impact Award, Ana Janosev is stepping down from her role as Managing Director. Jonas Dinger, who took over the Managing Director position alongside her in 2022, will continue leading SIA’s international community into the future. 

From her first involvement as coordinator of Social Impact Award Serbia in 2016 to stepping into the role of Managing Director with Jonas Dinger in 2022, Ana Janosev’s journey at SIA mirrors the organization’s development into a leading empowerment program for young people. In many ways, her personal transformation journey within the organization makes her the perfect SIA ambassador, demonstrating SIA’s power to transform lives beyond the program.

We asked Ana to share her perspective on her SIA journey, and some of her most memorable moments in the community.

“My life has changed dramatically since getting into the field in 2016. As the coordinator for SIA Serbia, I had the chance to directly interact with the international community and build connections across borders with other SIAs around the world. I was excited to learn about the field in various countries, and inspired by the community’s common desire to empower young people across society. This drove me towards the international team, where I took on various roles, until becoming Managing Director in 2022. Our team grew exponentially, we scaled to new countries, and welcomed thousands more young people into the community. Even in this growth, the “SIA energy” remained intact. Our unrelenting optimism and genuine belief in transformation never dissipated.

This energy is hard to articulate. I felt it for the first time in 2017 at our earliest community gathering. I was struck by how down-to-earth and “human” the experience felt, enabling genuine connections between people. I came away convinced that I would always want to work in this kind of environment, and have done so ever since. 

I could not be prouder of all that we have achieved since my very first involvement with this community. We have supported 60,000+ young people in 25+ countries to start their journeys with impact entrepreneurship. We’ve enabled 1,200+ teams to build solutions to the most pressing issues of our time. We’ve established hundreds of new partnerships across sectors, positioning youth as a key player in the transformation towards a more socially just and environmentally sustainable society. And perhaps most importantly, we have shown up through war, pandemic, and economic uncertainty, always in the spirit of demonstrating that a better world is in fact possible. 

In line with our belief that creating change is full of twists and turns, I am embarking on a new phase of my own journey. I’m excited to see all that this community will achieve, led by Jonas Dinger, who will continue driving our new strategic direction over the years to come. As was already the case in 2015 and still is in 2023, I’m convinced the SIA community will continue leading the way towards the better world we all wish for.”