Goran Jeras is an expert on sustainable finance, circular economy, cooperatives and development of local communities. He is currently the CEO at Echoes – a European Fairshares company behind setting up the first digital European Ethical Bank, licensed in Lithuania with ambition to manage 100% sustainable impact oriented portfolio and to provide full range of banking services to social and solidarity economy organisations across Europe. Echoes believes that community owned, efficient, scalable and replicable ethical bank is essential for the scale up and development of alternative economic models.
Since 2014, Goran has been the Manager of Cooperative for Ethical Financing in Croatia, one of the co-founding organisations of Echoes and the largest multi stakeholder co-op in Croatia.
After studying physics in Zagreb, Goran moved to The Netherlands in 2006 and started working as a consultant for large financial institutions in areas of process optimizations and risk management. Frustrated with the behavior and failings of commercial banks and an economic system that is unable to ensure fair distribution of wealth, sustainable development and needs of people in general, in 2010 he started researching and developed alternative financial and business models for local communities based on the principles of economic democracy, trust, collaboration, solidarity, protection of commons and sustainable use of resources.
From 2015-2018, Goran was a member of GECES (European Commission’s Expert Group on Social Economy). He has been a Fellow of German Marshall Fund in the United States since 2016, and a participant of European Forum Alpbach since 2023.