Saà ¡a VuÃÂiniàis a Serbian journalist and is the co-founder of North Base Media VC, and co-founder and former CEO and Managing Director of the Media Development Loan Fund.
VuÃÂiniÃÂ graduated with a degree in international law from the University of Belgrade in 1985 and attended the General Manager Program at Harvard Business School in 2000. In 2003, he attended the Private Equity Executive Education Course at Harvard Business School.
VuÃÂiniÃÂ began his journalistic career in 1979 as a member of the staff of the Belgrade political newsweekly Non. He became editor-in-chief of Non in 1989. In 1990, he was named editor-in-chief and general manager of B-92, a Serbian radio station.
From April 1990 to April 1993, VuÃÂiniàwas the general manager and editor-in-chief of Radio B92 in Belgrade, one of the few independent news outlets that operated in Yugoslavia during Slobodan Miloà ¡eviÃÂ's regime. He established B92 as a legal entity and was its first CEO. From April 1993 to May 1995, VuÃÂiniàworked as a media consultant for the Soros Foundation Network in Prague.
In 1995, with seed money from George Soros's Open Society Institute, VuÃÂiniÃÂ and the late Washington Post journalist Stuart Auerbach formed the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), an international non-profit organization based in New York City, Prague, Hong Kong, and Singapore with the goal of establishing a fund to provide loans to independent press organizations in new democracies with histories of government oppression of the media.
In July 2005, VuÃÂiniàrecorded a TED talk in Oxford, UK, in which he noted that 83% of the people in the world live in countries without independent press and thus don't know what's really going on in their homelands. The âÂÂinformationâ they receive is twisted and colored, and as a result they âÂÂare deprived of understanding their reality.âÂÂ
On May 4, 2006, Bruno Giussani of TED reported that VuÃÂiniÃÂ's idea had become a reality: âÂÂfor the first time a social cause will be listed on a major stock exchange.â He explained that the MDLF, the Swiss bank Vontobel, and a Zurich firm, responsAbility, were jointly introducing âÂÂa security that mobilises private investment to support a free press â basically a bond with a social element.âÂÂ
By 2012, MDLF had made over $100 million in loans to newspapers, magazines, radio stations and websites around the world, funding over 200 projects in 30 countries; by the same year, over 36 million people in the developing world were getting their news from media financed by MDLF.
VuÃÂiniÃÂ served as the CEO and Managing Director of MDLF until 31 March 2011, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Harlan Mandel, his deputy managing director for the previous 13 years. MDLF changed its name to the Media Development Investment Fund in 2013.
VuÃÂiniÃÂ founded IndieVoices, a crowdfunding portal that raises funds for independent media, mostly in the developing world.
VuÃÂiniàis the founder and CEO of V Media Ventures, which was established in April 2011 in Singapore. It is âÂÂa boutique idea and project generator and incubator, operating in the field of independent media. It also serves as a boutique media management and media investment advisory firm.âÂÂ
His book Evropa za nas, written with Ljiljana BiukoviÃÂ and Miodrag PepiÃÂ, was published by Triangle Press in 1989.