Board Members
Patrick Kersten
Chairman
Patrick Kersten is Program Director at Computrain, the largest and leading IT training provider in the Netherlands. Computrain was founded in 1984.
After having studied Biology in Amsterdam Patrick specialized himself in Education. He started in the professional IT Education and joined Computrain in 2000 as a product specialist and instructor. A few years later he became responsible for Computrain’s extensive End User training portfolio.
In 2008 he became a member of the Management Team of Computrain, becoming responsible for Training & Development. Since mid-2011, when Computrain merged with other IT training institutes, Patrick is responsible for the full IT training and services portfolio of the new organization and for managing the partnerships with delivery partners and the big software vendors.
Tomislav Dominkovic
Finance
tomislav.dominkovic@thellpa.com
Tomislav Dominkovic is Chairman of the board of Algebra, a leading training and education company in Croatia. He founded Algebra in 1998. with 2 other partners. With his company leadership, Algebra became a dominant company in the market, based on its service quality and market innovation both in marketing approach and recognising trends and market demand for education services and products. Algebra group consists of several corporate entities out of which the most significant are Algebra ltd. and University college Algebra (UCA) with 3 and 5-year degree study programs in engineering, design and business with the strong digital notion with 1.500+ students enrolled. UCA has numerous international partnerships with universities sharing experiences, exchanging students and faculty staff, joint study programs and dual diplomas with the most important being Goldsmith University of London, EPITECH Paris and Griffith College Dublin. UCA is currently rated as the best evaluated University in the Republic of Croatia based on the last reaccreditation procedure round among all private and public Universities.
Tomislav finished high school in the US and achieved his electric engineering diploma in Croatia. He has sharpened his entrepreneurial preferences with a diploma study in management, one a year-long post-graduate study program in business, customized for engineers.
Developing a company from ‘garage’ helped him to understand all processes in the training and education business. Once a trainer, Tomislav learned the main postulates of a human learning process, which was a great prerequisite to building a company that creates successful students. Out of many achievements on a professional level, the most significant ones are a most successful young manager in 2007 by Croatian Managers’ and Entrepreneurs’ Association (CROMA), membership in the Microsoft Partner Advisory Council from 2011 to 2014, Entrepreneur of the year 2021 in Croatia with 2 partners chosen by Ernst&Young.
Valentina Taseva
Members
Valentina Taseva is the CEO of Semos Education – a renowned ICT training center in North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as co-owner of Certiadria, a certification center for ICT skills certificates in 12 countries of the region. Her formal education includes a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering – “St. Cyril and Methodius” University – Skopje and a Master of Business Administration at IECD Bled School of Management. Valentina is one of the founders and a member of the board of directors of the LLPA.
Founded in 1995, Semos Education quickly evolved into one of the biggest training centers in South-East Europe and led by Valentina it became the leading training center not only in North Macedonia, but also regionally, provining official IT certification and changing lives of thousands of individuals and businesses. With 50 employees and 209 certified trainers who conduct training in 24 countries around the world, Semos Education is constantly growing and transforming the IT training map by keeping in pace with the latest trends in IT education, supported by its official vendors Microsoft, AWS, Cisco, Oracle, Adobe, ITIL, ISTQB and many more.
At the global LLPA ceremony which took place in Cancun, Mexico in November 2023, Semos Education deservedly received the title of LLPA Member of the Year, unanimously chosen as the best of the best training centers from 55 countries worldwide, and Valentina was awarded the prestigious status of LLPA Board Member.
Her successful leadership and enterpreneurial set of skills have brough her many prestigious awards, both national and international, such as:
First Woman in Business Award – Outstanding Achievement in Industry – 2011 in Astana, Kazakhstan, within the framework of the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) Annual Meeting and Business Forum
“A woman manager who has been successfully running a company for 20 years.” – from Marili Agency
Female entrepreneur for 2021 – award from the National Platform for Female Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Finance of RSM
“Creative female entrepreneur of the year for the Western Balkans – 2022 in Tirana, Albania at the international ceremony “Women who launch”, organized by the Regional Cooperation Council | Initiative for female entrepreneurs of the year from the Western Balkans.
Jorge Lopes
Experienced Director with a robust background in the IT industry, including roles at IBM, Informatica El Corte Inglés, Investronica, and Rumos, holding a Degree in Chemical Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico.
I began my career at IBM as a System Engineer in 1989 and then joined Informatica El Corte Inglés, an IT Services company, in 1993, where I held various management roles in the Technical Department. A major achievement during this time was serving as the Ticketing and Access Control Systems Project Leader for the Lisbon 1998 World Exhibition.
In 2001, I moved to Investronica, an IT Distributor of the same group, as Assistant General Manager and returned to Informatica El Corte Inglés in 2003, serving on the board until 2006.
After a sabbatical year in 2007, I joined Rumos in 2008, starting in sales and leading the sales team from 2009, and joined the board at Rumos in 2018.
I joined the LLPA as the Rumos representative in 2015, contributing to the Financial and AI Committees, and was elected to the Board of the LLPA in October 2024 at the LLPA Summit in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Passionate about developing teams and driving performance, I take pride in nurturing talent, enhancing communication skills, and achieving organizational goals. After 18 years of IT Services and Products related roles, I found in Training my real work passion, in the way that it really can impact people, individually or as part of their organizations.