Jelena Gavrilović Šarenac

Jelena Gavrilović Šarenac is the Director of Corporate Communications at Henkel Adriatics. Throughout her career, she has also served as Marketing Director at Mercedes-Benz/DaimlerChrysler and as Planning Director for the Coca-Cola account at Publicis. She gained international experience at Henkel’s headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany, as well as at Henkel in Brussels, Belgium.

She holds a degree in Management from Moscow State University and a Master’s degree in Communications from the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) in Belgrade. She has further advanced her professional knowledge through executive education programmes at institutions including IEDC Bled School of Management, Cranfield University, and IESE Business School in Barcelona.

She has been a long-standing member of IAA Serbia, the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia, the Serbian Association of Managers, and the European Association of Communication Directors. She has served on the jury of the Campaigns with Purpose Festival (2021–2026), was President of the Serbian Public Relations Association (DSOJ) from 2016 to 2019, and served as Vice President of Effie Awards Serbia from 2017 to 2021. She has also been a jury member for Henkel’s CoCo (Corporate Communication) Awards (2022), BBICC (2019–2024), and other professional awards.

Her accolades include the Mark Awards 2025 – Corporate Communications Manager of the Year and the Mark Awards 2025 Special Recognition for Personal Contribution to the Advancement of the Profession. She has also received several Henkel Excellence Awards: silver in 2019 and bronze in 2023 and 2024. In 2016, she received the PRO.PR Award for her regional contribution to the communications profession.

In addition, she has completed coaching and NLP training programmes and is a certified coach and NLP trainer. Besides her native language, she speaks German, English, Russian, and French fluently.