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Davor Runje, Lecturer

Davor Runje is a highly experienced software engineer, computer scientist, and serial entrepreneur with a strong background in pioneering technology and business ventures. His latest endeavour involves co-founding AIRT, an innovative Artificial Intelligence startup focused on leveraging his research to tackle industrial-scale challenges. Previously, he was instrumental in establishing DRAP in 2008, transforming it into one of Croatia's most celebrated digital agencies until its acquisition by Imago Ogilvy in 2018. In 1997, Davor played a key role in founding PlayMedia Systems, becoming a global leader in AMP MP3 playback technology. Here, he spearheaded the invention and development of various DRM-based and DRM-free systems for digital audio distribution, serving high-profile clients like AOL, STMicroelectronics, and Napster. During his PhD studies, under the mentorship of Yuri Gurevich at Microsoft Research, Davor made significant contributions to programming for multiprocessor/multicore systems. He was pivotal in the design, implementation, and technology transfer of a system that facilitated structured concurrency program execution, which became known as the Task Parallel Library in the .NET framework. This groundbreaking work earned him the SSCLI and Phoenix 2005 award from Microsoft Research, recognising it as one of the top 16 international research projects. Davor is also an esteemed author, contributing 20 publications to theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and he holds two US patents. Between 2020 and 2024, he led the Croatian Independent Software Exporters as president of the board, advocating for legal and tax reforms to enhance the global competitiveness of the Croatian IT sector. This industry group represents a significant portion of the Croatian IT market. Under Davor's leadership, it has engaged in various initiatives to improve the sector's standing on the world stage.