Tanja Petovar , LL.M. (Master of Laws), lives in Belgrade, Serbia. She works as a leadership development consultant. She was a Regional Director of Oxford Leadership Academy in South Eastern Europe with her office in Belgrade (2003-2006). While living abroad (1992-2002) she  was a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights - The Norwegian Institute of Human Right in Oslo; founder and director of the Human Rights House - Civic Link in Ljubljana, Slovenia–(1993-1996); Senior Advisor in the Stockholm based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral assistance - IDEA (1996-2002). She was also the founder and director of the Southeast Europe Democracy Support Network - SEEDS, where she worked closely with the leading research agencies and institutions throughout the Balkans  (2000-2004).

Before leaving Yugoslavia in 1992 Tanja was a human rights lawyer (Petovar&Co Law Office) and a co-founder of the Yugoslav Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

For her activities in the promotion of human rights and democracy she got international recognitions and awards. She was appointed as a Member First Class of the Royal Order: the insignia of the Polar Star awarded by H.M. the King of Sweden (1991); she was also the recipient of the 1992 Award for Peace and Culture of the Edita and Ira Morris' Hiroshima Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden; and got the “Award of Acknowledgment" of the Dr. Bruno Kreisky Stiftung fur Verdienste um die Menschenrechte, Vienna, Austria (1993).