Former Bosnian refugee is now among the world's most inspirational leaders

“Dr Maja Zelihic is an Interim Dean, Fulbright Specialist, Full Professor, and a Department Chair of the Advanced Management Studies at the Forbes School of Business and Technology, University of Arizona Global Campus. She is currently serving her Fulbright tenure, having completed one project as a primary investigator, and another as a co-investigator. Dr. Zelihic is also a GLOBE research project Country-Co-Investigator, contributing to the unique large-scale study of cultural practices, leadership ideals, and interpersonal trust GLOBE conducted in 160 countries. She was also named one of the top 200 leaders to follow in 2021 by PeopleHum,” says Zelihic’s entry in the Global Leaders magazine list.

Zelihic’s name can now be found among those of people like New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern, Bill Gates, Marry Bara, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and others.

Zelihic fled BiH in 1992 as the war began in the country. Until 1996, she lived in a refugee camp in Innsbruck, Germany.

"When I talk about my stay in the refugee centre, it is a very unique story for the western media - and for us, unfortunately, it is a very typical story. Collective trauma, according to research, affects people in two ways. Some wake up the shock and it motivates them to work as hard as possible. For me, suddenly being without parents and in a refugee camp, it seems, is something that I managed to overcome and maybe even find some motivation in it," she said.

Her academic papers have been published in more than 20 peer-reviewed journals, and her research endeavours have taken her to Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Jordan, Zambia, and many other parts of the world.

Zelihic also co-authored a book on the topic of perception with dr. Diane Hamilton, another person on the Global Leaders list.

She commented on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina for N1 as well, calling for an end to inflammatory rhetoric in the country and arguing that many examples from the world show what happens when such rhetoric takes over.

Bosnia’s political leaders should rather turn to “economic development, opening factories, employment of the youth,” she said.

“We are moving away from the concept of what is important for this country - such as tourism development and investment in the youth,” she added.

Zelihic noted that education in Bosnia “is among the best in the world,” but added, “our educators do not have the resources to invest like their counterparts in the Western world.”

“Imagine what would happen if politicians turned to these topics,” she said.