About the Institution

The people behind the record of nations

Bilateral Navigator publishes the world’s first comprehensive series of bilateral reference volumes — one premium hardcover for each of the 18,528 country pairs among the 193 UN member states. Every volume is a structured comparison of two countries across 40 domains, drawn from a curated database of public, governmental, and academic sources.

Why we exist

A relationship is worth studying in its own right

The project was conceived to close a long-visible gap in international affairs: fewer than one in thirty bilateral relationships in the world has ever been studied as a relationship, rather than as two separate countries viewed apart. Our volumes are built for embassies, chambers of commerce, ministries, and senior business leaders who need a serious and citable reference on the specific country pair that matters to them.

Dr. Siniša Grgić with Bilateral Navigator editions

Leadership

The author and the institution he built

Dr. Siniša Grgić

Author & President

Dr. Grgić is the author of the Bilateral Navigator series and president of the company. He currently serves as Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Sweden and Latvia and as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Stockholm. Before joining the foreign service, he founded Croatia’s first credit rating agency, later acquired by Bisnode, now part of Dun & Bradstreet. He holds a doctorate in social network analysis and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School.

Bilateral Navigator grew out of decades of his work at the intersection of large-scale data analysis, structured comparison, and the practical information needs of diplomats and decision-makers.

Board of Senior Counselors

Counsel from the highest levels of governance

The Board of Senior Counselors is an advisory body whose members lend their experience and standing to the project. It is consultative in nature and serves the institution’s external mission.

Dr. Srgjan Kerim

Chairman of the Board of Senior Counselors · 62nd President of the UN General Assembly

Dr. Kerim served as President of the 62nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, and Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Climate Change. He represented his country as Ambassador to Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, and as Permanent Representative to the United Nations. A professor of international economics at the University of Belgrade, with visiting professorships at the University of Hamburg and New York University, he is the author of ten books on international politics and economics and more than one hundred scholarly papers, and a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Science and Education from the Macedonian Parliament.

Co-Founders & Board

The co-founders and directors who steer the institution

The founders, investors, and directors who set the direction of the institution, fund its independence, and connect it to the markets and communities its volumes describe.

Prof. Davor Lauc

Co-Founder · Board Member · Data Infrastructure

Prof. Lauc leads the data-engineering foundation of the project. With an academic background in logic and data science and a long career building large analytical systems, he oversees the underlying database, the indicator pipeline, and the similarity framework that produce the structured comparisons in every volume.

Dr. Bruce Grant

Co-Founder · Lead Investor

Dr. Grant is the founder and Executive Chairman of Applied Value Group and Applied Invest, a group of more than twenty companies fully or significantly controlled in North America, Europe, and Asia. He previously served as President of Arthur D. Little North America and has spent decades advising Fortune 500 leadership and serving on boards across telecommunications, technology, and media.

Daniel Grant

Board Member · Applied Invest

Daniel Grant serves on the Board as the representative of Applied Invest, where he holds a financial leadership role within the firm’s Nordic operations. He brings the operating perspective of an active international investment platform and direct knowledge of the Stockholm market in which much of the leadership is based.

Yaakov Flitchkin

Co-Founder · Board Member · Founding Investor

Yaakov is the founding investor of Bilateral Navigator and a member of its Board. He brings deep experience in cross-border initiatives and international partnerships, with an extensive network across global institutions and the public sector, and represents the link to the wider community working to strengthen multilateral cooperation.

Jakov Kitarović

Co-Founder · International Relations

Jakov contributes to the strategic positioning of Bilateral Navigator at the intersection of technology and international affairs. His perspective helps shape the way the series addresses the requirements of foreign ministries, diplomatic missions, and trade promotion organizations.

Siniša Lukačević

Co-Founder · Back-End Development

Siniša Lukačević is the technical architect behind the production pipeline. With a robust background in software engineering and systems architecture, he builds and maintains the back-end systems that turn structured data into the finished hardcover volumes used by embassies and chambers of commerce.

Robert Šteković

Co-Founder · Commercial Strategy

Robert is Chief Commercial Officer of Lidl Sweden, a role he has held since 2020, with prior senior commercial posts at Lidl in Denmark, Croatia, and the group’s international operations. He brings a commercial leadership career spanning four European markets and a living connection between the Croatian and Swedish economies the home editions describe.

Editorial Team

The editors who hold each volume to its standard

A small editorial team carries every volume from sourcing to the finished hardcover, holding each comparison to a single, consistent standard.

Marija Bibić

Executive Editor · Head of Editorial

As an editor-in-chief, she oversees editorial content and strategic communications, focusing on international cooperation, business development, and stakeholder engagement. Passionate about connecting people, ideas, and opportunities, she helps amplify stories that drive collaboration and global impact.

Filipa Đerek

Assistant Editor · Croatia

Dibakar Das Dwip

Assistant Editor · Bangladesh

Emma E Dugso

Assistant Editor · Philippines

Euginia Triaz

Assistant Editor · Indonesia

Larah Jane D Avendaño

Assistant Editor · Philippines

Contribute

Be recorded as a bridge between nations

Each edition is shaped by a small circle of contributors who genuinely connect two countries. If that describes your life and work, we would value your perspective.

Become a Contributor