EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT EXPERT
aleksandarsahov(at)ideasdepo.mk
Mr. Aleksandar Shahov is a Senior project manager and business environment expert. He has 25 years of experience in advisory and managerial role to projects’ implementing partners in the area of business enabling environment, regulatory reform and formulation and implementation of trade, economic and legal policy.
Aleksandar is knowledgeable of the content and experienced in the application of domestic and international law, especially business, trade, commercial, and IT & telecommunications law; and has a substantive expertise in multilateral trade regulations covered by the Agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), especially in areas of trade in services and intellectual property. In the last 15 years he implemented several highly visible and recognized reforms in the areas such as business enabling environment, trade facilitation, public procurement policy, bankruptcy, corporate governance, labor and pension policy, inspections, attracting foreign investments and investors’ aftercare services, private sector development, supply chain management, public private partnerships, fiscal decentralization, promotion of exports, industrial policy, Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), Regulatory Guillotine and Public – Private Dialogue (PPD). Aleksandar also has sound experience and understanding of several eGov solutions such as those related to export import licensing, e-procurements, electronic register of regulations and inspections surveillance.
Aleksandar is proficient in legal research and analysis including the interaction between international trade law and domestic legal system to assess compatibility and enable implementation actions; highly committed to working directly with domestic and foreign experts, law-drafters and policy-makers in understanding and employing the multilateral trading systems as tools to support development strategies and pursue domestic policies and assist the beneficiaries and end users such as the private sector/chambers of commerce and citizens/consumers to properly implement such strategies and gain maximum benefits.
Most of his career, from 1999 through 2015, Aleksandar worked for the internationally recognized consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton. Namely, he served as a Director (Chief of Party) of the two latest USAID financed projects implemented by Booz Allen Hamilton in Macedonia, in the areas of business enabling environment and investments, exports, inspections and public-private dialogue. In the period from 2015 through 2020, Aleksandar then was also managing a comprehensive inspections projects in Macedonia financed by USAID and EBRD and implemented by the local organization IDEAS DePo, and was a Team Leader and Key Expert of a complex EU business environment project implemented by the consulting company NIRAS in Serbia. In 2021 he joined the consulting company Cardno International Development to serve for one year as a Deputy Chief of Party of the USAID Strengthening Resource Mobilization Activity that aims to increase capacities of the national and local self-government authorities in areas such as increasing revenues, improve budget execution, facilitate private sector engagement and enhance fiscal decentralization. In his earlier career days, he served as a senior legal advisor under the USAID projects that helped Macedonia to accede to the WTO and consequently to comply with the WTO rules and obligations. He started his career in 1996 working as a legal advisor for the US based company Center for Financial Engineering in Development that implemented USAID project dealing with commercial law reform.
Aleksandar holds a Master of Science Degree in Management and Production Engineering and a Bachelor Degree in Law, both from the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Macedonia. He also attended numerous programs and trainings such as those of London School of Economics, Business School of the University of Portsmouth, Luiss University in Rome, as well as of international organizations including World Bank, EU, USAID, etc.