Berislav Sokač, Run Croatia CEO/Co-partner
In 1995, after completing the Mathematical Gymnasium, Berislav Sokač decided to enroll his second secondary school – bakery. His intention was to make a bakery career in Sheraton Zagreb, which was opened in 1996 and to become the best baker who will travel around the world working in the Sheraton hotel chain. In 1998 he gets involved in IT and Internet development and leaves the top bakery business in the Sheraton. In 2001 he graduates at applied computer science University of Dubrovnik and starts his IT career in local IT company. In 2005 he got a job at the US IT corporation Oracle and ten years later, in 2016, he leaves the position of director of retails for Baltic and CEE countries. During this period he educates himself in technical knowledge and managerial skills. In 2008 he got his Executive MBA degree at Cotrugli Business School and in 2013 TMP MBA in finance in London.
In 2010 he ran his first marathon in NYC, and in the next 2.5 years he ran all six marathons of the World Marathon Majors League (Boston, Chicago, Berlin, London, Tokyo, NYC). He got the certificate of being the 13th person in the world who ran all those marathons. From that moment on, it intensively tries to use his passion for running and in combination of his business knowledge to contribute to development of tourism in Croatia. In 2015 he launched the Run Croatia project in cooperation with two partners. Three years later, Run Croatia is the only organization that promotes Croatian tourism through the Run Friendly Platform, which includes event management for race organization, Run Friendly Hotels, Clinics, Restaurants, Organic Foods small companies, Run Friendly Employers, Digital Communication Platform and Tourism Agency.
After 29 successfully organized races, Run Croatia was the largest and most important media channel for reporting from the 30th 100km race World Championships at Sveti Martin na Muri, where also the first Run friendly hotel is. The race was organized on September 8th 2018 and gained a total audience of 17 days on social networks.
Berislav Sokač and his Run Croatia project with his partners and their Run Friendly platform are actively promoting Croatia as the world’s first Run Friendly country on the planet.