Duško Knežević is the founder and president of the board of directors of , a financial group based in Montenegroconsisting of companies with interests in banks in Serbia, Cyprus, Russia and Great Britain. In addition to his business interests, he is the founder and president of the board of two business-oriented universities, in Montenegro and in Serbia. In April 2010, Knežević became a member of Clinton Global Initiative. Knežević founded the in 2010. The mission of the Foundation is to support the creation of new societal values and economic empowerment of citizens through enhancement of business environment and corporate social responsible practices. Improving regional cooperation is one of the key goals of the Atlas Foundation. Knežević organised the Inaugural Conference “Balkan Networking for Social Empowerment of South-Eastern Europe” that was held in Budva in May 2011, under the auspices of the Government of Montenegro and Atlas Foundation, and in partnership with Clinton Global Initiative. The main objective of this event was to address pressing challenges facing South-Eastern Europe through developing cross-border and new models of cross-sector cooperation.
Knežević is President of the Atlas Group, which he founded 25 years ago in Yugoslavia. The AGC has grown into an internationally acknowledged company, consisting of 30 companies including banks, finance, real estate, construction, tourism, education, health and media. Strong business relationships and partnerships with, among others, Abu Dhabi Capital Group owned by Royal family from UAE, Bursa Istanbul, Mace London, Piraeus Bank, EBRD, Century 21 Real Estate and Turner Real Estate USA, have been developed. Knežević founded and is President of the board of Mediterranean University and the Belgrade Banking Academy. Major entities of AGC include:
FinInvest Montenegro, in collaboration with Capital Investments, a company owned by the royal family in Abu Dhabi, is completing a 180 million euro residential business complex investment in Podgorica. FinInvest Montenegro stands behind a major health-tourism project in Meljine, on Montenegro's Adriatic Coast.
Higher education
Knežević is the founder and president of the board of:
Belgrade Banking Academy, the only institution of its kind in the region
2019 prosecution and political initiative
A video clip from 2016 surfaced in January which showed Dusko Knezevic appearing to hand the then mayor of Podgorica, Slavoljub Stijepovic, an envelope containing what Knezevic later said was $100,000, to fund a DPS election campaign. Knezevic, who is now in London, has told the media he had been providing secret cash to the DPS for the past 25 years. Some saw this as the first concrete confirmation of something that has long been an open secret in Montenegro. The DPS and Djukanovic have denied wrongdoing, insisting that all donations to the party are recorded in the party’s financial records. The authorities have since gone after Knezevic, until recently close to the ruling elite, who now faces charges of money laundering. Another video that Knezevic released late in January and February showed a senior central bank official asking for a bribe not to send inspectors into one of Knezevic’s banks. Knezevic has also released documents that he claims prove that he helped finance Djukanovic’s lavish travels abroad in five-star hotels and covering his personal expenses. In the February 2019 Montenegro has been rocked by a wave of street protests calling on the President and the DPS-led government to resign and accusing them of corruption. Knezevic’s accusations against Djukanovic have been a driving force behind the street protests; he claims to have been a major illicit donor to the ruling DPS over the last 25 years. Opposition parties and civic groups behind the protests are divided, however, over Knezevic’s role in the protest movement, with many wanting to keep a distance from him. In order to fight for rule of low and against corruption, in the Spring 2019 Duško Knežević initiated DO SLOBODE movement and announced establishment of the political party.
Paper works, articles and books
Fernando Diz, Hasan Hanić, Duško Knezević: “On the Black-Scholes Model and why Scholes and Merton won the Nobel Prize”, work presented in the Symposium Financial Innovations, November 1997
D. Knežević, “Selection of Strategic Partner for Atlas Bank”, work presented at the Round Table “Privatization of Banks in Serbia – four years later”, Belgrade, 17 May 2005, printed for conference proceedings, Belgrade Banking Academy and Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade, pp. 131–33
D. Knežević, “Credit Insurance”, Belgrade Banking Academy Belgrade, 2007.
D. Knežević, M. Jovović and I. Džaković, “Credit Insurance”, Sixth International Symposium “New Products in Insurance Market”, Association of Actuaries of Serbia and Faculty of Economics, Zlatibor 2008.
S. Stefanović, D. Knežević, “Secondary Mortgage Markets and Instruments – Review of Experiences of European Union Countries,” conference proceedings from international science convention Banking Products and Services Market in Serbia, Belgrade Banking Academy, Belgrade, 2008
D. Knežević, “Businesses in the region must cooperate with foreign investors”, World Finance Magazine, edition September–October 2010
