New senior vice president for operations, finance, and compliance Dzenita Korac Kolja started with Chemonics 16 years ago in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a USAID project and now leads the company’s largest support division.

Photo of Dzenita Korac Kolja

Chemonics International has named Dzenita Korac Kolja as senior vice president of its Operations, Finance, and Compliance (OFC) Division supporting its global health and supply chain portfolio. Ms. Korac Kolja is a seasoned finance, risk, and compliance expert with 20 years of experience supporting donor-funded international development projects around the world.

Prior to joining Chemonics’ executive management team, Ms. Korac Kolja served as the senior director for the Strategic Assessment Team in OFC, leading proactive reviews of health commodity procurements and warehousing and distribution transactions to assess completeness of records and contractual compliance, and to identify opportunities to strengthen supply chain processes. She was also the managing director of the Country Operations Optimization Program (CO-OP) in Afghanistan where she led a multi-national team providing finance, compliance, audit, human resources, business conduct and ethics, and other support functions to Chemonics’ Afghanistan-based projects. Her career with Chemonics started in Bosnia and Herzegovina 16 years ago, where, as a cooperating country national, she supported four different international development projects, including as the deputy chief of party on a $32-million-dollar tripartite donor-funded Governance Accountability Project.

“Dzenita’s proven track record in mitigating risk in complex operating environments and deep knowledge of USAID regulations and contracting requirements make her an ideal candidate to lead our largest support division,” says Chemonics’ executive vice president Christopher Scott. “Her strong leadership skills, coupled with her first-hand experience as a member of our global workforce, will allow us to continue supporting the dynamic growth of our global health and supply chain work.”

In her new role, Ms. Korac Kolja will oversee the teams, tools, and processes supporting Chemonics’ robust global health and supply chain portfolio. Ms. Korac Kolja has a B.Sc. in Law from the University of Sarajevo and an MBA from the International Burch University in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is a native Bosnian speaker.