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IFIA Mag azine Se p t ember 2018 IFIA Mag azine Se p t ember 2018
BERNARDA CECELJA INCENTIVIZES

FEMALE INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Bernarda Cecelja, a successful Croatian innova- clared her the Entrepreneur of the Year
tor-entrepreneur, is the owner of a prestigious on four occasions, and she has received
Croatian company Bernarda Ltd. which pro- four further awards for excellence from
duces high-quality beds for hotels, suites, and the Institute of Business Studies. The
homes. The fabrication process is based on a Ministry of Crafts, Small and Medium
dozen protected innovations occurring over Enterprise of the Republic of Croatia has
the period of the last 20 years. The company voted her the Entrepreneur of the Year
presently operates production facilities with three times. Mrs. Bernarda is decorated
250 employees, and ca. 21 000 m2 of area, rep- by multiple international awards for the
resenting an EU regional leader in bed manu- promotion and incentivizing female in-
facturing. novative entrepreneurship, and is an
active member of the Union of Croatian
The quality of their products, as well as the in- Innovators, the national umbrella associ-
novation and continual advancement has been ation of innovators, member of the IFIA.
recognized by numerous highly visible interna-
tional hotel franchises, such as Astron, Ramada,
Kempinsky, Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Interconti-
nental, Hilton, Plaza, Marriot, Radisson etc.

The production program of the company fea-
tures Mrs. Cecelja’s own technological solutions,
as well as those of her development team, which
are not only based on the actual worldwide
trends in bed production and design, but many
of them through their innovativeness represent
new standards of healthy sleep technology. A
further acclamation of the high innovativeness
of these products is the many awards and rec-
ognitions for innovation. Within the production
program, seven repeatedly awarded innova-
tions stand out, recognized with over 50 differ-
ent awards internationally.

Mrs. Bernarda Cecelja has also been repeatedly
awarded with over 40 prestigious awards for in-
novation and entrepreneurship in Croatia and
in the neighboring region. She was inducted as
a Knight of Innovation in 2012 at the Brussels in-
novation fair INNOVA. The Croatian Association
of Managers & Entrepreneurs CROMA has de-

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