User:SGCCISWK/Ilija Studen

Ilija Studen (born August 31, 1967) is an Austrian and Bosnian entrepreneur, industrialist, and investor. He is the co-founder and president of the Studen & Co Holding, a holding company focusing primarily on agribusiness. Studen successfully developped an international portfolio of companies covering the processing, trading, and distribution of agricultural commodities such as Sugar, Edible Oils, Oilseeds, Grains, and Coffee. Today, the STUDEN group has over 30 companies, and counts over 600 employees across South Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Ilija Studen lives and works between Dubai, Vienna, and Brcko.

Early life and education
Ilija Studen was born on August 31, 1967 in Bihac, a city in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina (formerly Yugoslavia). His father was leading a major food distribution company, and his mother was an insurance officer. Ilija Studen finished elementary school and the electro-technical middle school in Bihac. During this time, he was an active chess player, and the tournaments have led him to travel across Yugoslavia. After his military service in Derventa (BiH), Studen moved to Zagreb in 1986 to study electrical engineering, and during this time already showed entrepreneurial traits through the sales of personal computers and other technical equipment. As the political tension was increasing and Yugoslavia was on the brink of collapse, Studen subsequently moved to Vienna, Austria in 1991.

Professional career
Ilija Studen co-founded the Studen & Co GmbH in 1992 in Vienna when he was just 25 years old. The company started with exports of staple food s such as wheat flower, edible oils and sugar from Austria, Hungary, and Germany. Mineral Oil distribution was also among the first ventures (today, CEROL petrol stations are well positioned in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

From its inception, the goal the STUDEN Group was to set up an integrated agri-business that would source commodities from around the world in order to secure the most competitive prices. Studen knew that strategic partnerships along the supply chain would be necessary to create a sustainable business model, which led to cooperations and joint-ventures with Austrian market leaders.

Ilija Studen saw a big potential for improvement in the Edible Oil sector, resulting in a partnership with VEREINIGTE FETTWARENINDUSTRIE (VFI), the leading Edible Oils producer in Austria, with whom he later privatized and modernized the BIMAL factory in Bosnia and Herzegovina to become one of the leading edible oil producers in South-Eastern Europe.

Another successful partnership was set up with the Austrian sugar producer AGRANA, leading to a joint venture agreement in the West Balkan region.

As Brazil saw an agricultural boom in the late 90s and early 00s, Studen opened an office in Sao Paolo in order to improve the commodity sourcing operations. In turn, Brazil became an increasingly important source of for Southeast European markets. Among others, green coffee trading was introduced to the group. Today, the STUDEN Group is an important supplier of green coffee throughout Southeastern Europe. Growth continued through the acquisition of a coffee roasting plant in Gradačac which was recently moved to Brcko.

Around the same period, the STUDEN-AGRANA Sugar Refinery was constructed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, this strategic partnership has secured a sugar market leadership position in the West Balkan region.

Only a few years later, Studen entered wheat flour production through the acquisition of ŽITOPROMET.

Increased internationalization of the business has led to an eastward expansion of the STUDEN Group, and the establishment of an office in Dubai which acts as a regional headquarter and a commodity trading hub. The key distribution markets in the Middle East include Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Today, Ilija Studen lives and works between Dubai, Vienna and Brcko, from where he leads the global expansion of the STUDEN group.