If you close your eyes and cover your ears, you will find him by his perfume

Kerim is one of those types of people who have never been late for work, missed a work day or forgotten a work obligation.

A responsible and professional approach does not prevent him from enjoying jokes and fun with his colleagues.

He is one of our best engineers, as well as the company's CTO department. Always nicely dressed with every hair on his head always standing in the right place :) We really sometimes wonder how he manages to achieve everything.

Kerim Balić - CTO of Ankora

What’s your role at Ankora?

Before coming to Ankora, I built my career from a role of a junior / beginner. I changed a couple of companies until I came here, to my oasis of peace. I have been with Ankora since the founding of the company.

My role from the very beginning was CTO. Looking back to the early days, my position and title may be the same but they are two very different roles. The share amount of knowledge and experience which I have accumulated since day 1 is enormous.

Technologies and methodologies have changed over time, but so have I. I studied, upgraded myself and my knowledge to arrive at a whole new level within the same position and title.

What do you think makes you most effective as a CTO ?

First of all, a good atmosphere. It is really important to be surrounded by wonderful colleagues with whom you can share both happiness and sorrow.

Every day is super cool and I am always looking forward to our new experience, having fun and learning new things and that makes me really effective.

I am friends with colleagues with whom I work- outside of business activities, I often go hiking, swimming or traveling with them.

I am also made effective by the great clients we work with, and their commitment to products. When you mix their commitment to products, and my commitment to work, you get top results. I really can't imagine myself in another company at the moment.

What has been your favorite project at Ankora?

My favorite project was mDoc, a digital health care platform, especially because we were doing cool things which are helping a lot of the people with their disease, also during the covid-19 period.

From a technical perspective this project also was challenging specially because of the large number of clients and making everything dynamic and effective for each customer.

I am really happy when I know that the application I developed is currently helping in the healthcare system, and that with the help of that application, maybe someone's life is saved right now. Such pride is hard to achieve on some other projects.

Part of the Ankora team in the office

What are your hobbies outside of Ankora ?

Since I spent quite a lot of time in sports before my business career, and I was a national player in short track speed skating, I am a big fan of skating and rollerblading.

As a young athlete, I won numerous medals at European and world competitions, and in 2009 I was named the most successful individual in our municipality.

Also I enjoy running whenever I can and hiking on beautiful mountains around Sarajevo. One of my greatest loves is travel. I have traveled to larger European countries, but I have also visited a good number of Asian countries.

Of course, I’m not going anywhere without my laptop, and I don’t have a problem working on the road, I even love it. There are really few things as beautiful as when I take out my laptop on a tropical beach :)

How do you describe your work personality vs. your home life personality?

My work personality likes taking risks and responsibility. I am also the same in my home life. My desire for challenges awakens my desire for risky moves. I believe that only risky moves can achieve something great and top-notch.

Such things have been confirmed throughout my life. Of course, I used to lose, but that was just another lesson. Also in business and private life, I have always loved to take initiatives, and be the first to suggest something.

I am a team player and I am happy to be available to all my colleagues. I love helping others, and it really fulfills me. I like to work the most, which are clearly defined and systematically organized, and I feel best in working on such projects.

A moment from professional speed skating training.

Are you an iPhone or android type of person?

Very good question. That’s exactly how I like to make divisions for all the things in life. The iPhone is synonymous with something useful, focused, without a lot of features but fast and high quality.

Of course also well-branded. Android is inefficient, slow, mediocre in everything, and superb in nothing. Yes, I'm the iPhone type of person, or at least I'm trying to be :)