Žarko Šunderić has been the Director of the Center for Social Policy since January 2016. He has initiated and established the regional Western Balkans Network: The Future of the Welfare State, which gathers leading think-tank organizations and researchers in the Western Balkan countries dealing with welfare state issues, thus contributing to improving the social dimension of EU Integration in the Western Balkans. Žarko was head of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia during the period 2008-2015, working on coordination, monitoring and reporting in the field of social inclusion and poverty reduction. Žarko has considerable experience in developing European social inclusion policies in Serbia. He worked on monitoring programs for the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy in the Government of the Republic of Serbia from 2005 to 2008. From 2001 to 2004 he worked for the US organization CHF, working on the implementation of USAID programs in Serbia. Between 1999 to 2000 Žarko worked on the democracy development program at the NGO Civic Initiatives. His master thesis Role of Institutions in Creating Social Cohesion was published as a book by FEFA in 2015.