Ivan Novakovski
School leader in Skopje, North Macedonia. Since 2020 he has directed NOVA International School Skopje, the country's first registered private school and its first IB World Continuum School, where students and educators from more than 40 nationalities learn side by side and every child is known, challenged, and encouraged to grow with confidence.
Ivan Novakovski joined NOVA in April 2003 as Financial and Technology Manager, led its operations, finances, capital projects, marketing, and HR as Manager from 2007, and was appointed Director in August 2020. Across those years the school grew from 40 students and 10 staff to more than 800 students and 200 staff, without losing its small-school culture.
His path to school leadership came through business rather than the classroom. Before NOVA he coordinated the study-abroad office at Western Washington University and built financial models for large forestry projects across Latin America at Trillium Corporation. That grounding shows in how he leads: clear systems, long horizons, and the conviction that a school is at its best when strong academics sit alongside genuine care for each learner.
As Director he has led NOVA through its 25th anniversary, the launch of a new five-year strategic course, the introduction of the IB Primary Years Programme, and planning for a campus expansion set to double the school's physical infrastructure. Half the campus's energy already comes from renewables.
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1999–2002
Western Washington University. BA in International Business, Cum Laude, while coordinating peer advising for the study-abroad office, guiding 500+ students a year.
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2002–03
Trillium Corporation. Financial modeling for $40M and $100M forestry projects in Venezuela, Chile, and Argentina.
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2003–05
NOVA, Financial and Technology Manager. Led the school's first five-year improvement plan and its full international accreditation through CITA.
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2006
Thunderbird, as a Fulbright scholar. MBA in International Management with a finance concentration, GPA 3.82, Graduation with Distinction.
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2007–20
NOVA, Manager. Capital investment, finance, marketing, and HR through the school's biggest period of physical growth, including a green-building kindergarten and a new elementary campus.
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2020–
NOVA, Director. The 25th anniversary, a new five-year strategic course, the PYP launch that made NOVA the country's first IB World Continuum school, and a planned doubling of the campus.
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2025
Elected to the CEESA Executive Committee. Alongside ongoing service on the board of AmCham North Macedonia.
Two decades of interviews and speeches, one consistent voice
“Quality education is the one investment that offers a real return across an entire lifetime.”
“Our greatest asset was never our buildings. It is our people.”
“The dream called NOVA started many years ago from a single person and family. It has become so much more. We are now an extended family.”
“We believe diversity is what makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
“Learning can only take place in an environment where students feel cared for and safe.”
“We shouldn't be debating public versus private education. We should be debating good and bad models.”
“We see NOVA as an education leader in the wider regional context, at the forefront of practices that anticipate the seismic changes of today's world.”
Since 2005 the Boris Trajkovski–NOVA scholarship program has placed motivated local students in full IB study alongside international peers. Ivan redesigned its selection process around observed collaboration rather than panel interviews, watching how candidates work in a team instead of how they perform in a chair.
“We are equally proud of every scholarship student, whether their university is called Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, or Groningen, Jacobs Bremen, and Ss. Cyril and Methodius.”
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Executive Committee Member, CEESAElected in 2025 to the leadership of the Central and Eastern European Schools Association, a network of international schools sharing practice, athletics, and academic events across the region.
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Board Member, AmCham North MacedoniaConnecting the country's education sector with its business one, and bringing real-world perspectives into classrooms.
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Head of an IB World SchoolNOVA is authorized across all three IB programmes, PYP, MYP, and DP, with graduates scoring above global IB averages.
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A public voice for education reformFor more than 15 years Ivan has argued publicly that the key to North Macedonia's development lies in education, in interviews with Dnevnik, Kapital, and national television.
Five values guide every decision at NOVA, and in this office.