The woman challenging stereotypes in one of Croatia’s toughest mechanical trades

by croatiaweek
July 20, 2026
in Business

Ljerka Božičević Jurin (Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

While some children associate their earliest memories with carefree games in a sandpit, Ljerka Božičević Jurin, a qualified mechanical engineer, co-owner and manager of a respected automotive repair, engine machining and trading business, spent her childhood surrounded by Fiats, Peglicas and Ladas.

In a world where heavy industry and mechanics are still largely perceived as male domains, Ljerka represents a distinctive and powerful example of someone challenging those stereotypes.

Her professional choice and leadership position in the precision machining sector are still unusual, making her a notable example of a woman who has established herself through knowledge and character in a world dominated by metal and heavy machinery.

Officially established on 28 October 1981 under the leadership of her father, Ljerko Božičević, the Zagreb-based family business now has 11 people at its core: nine highly skilled employees, together with Ljerka and her father, who jointly manage the company.

Her mother has also played an important role since the early days, meticulously overseeing the financial and administrative side of the business and helping provide the stability on which the family’s success was built.

The company specialises in the complex machining of engine components for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, agricultural machinery and industrial vehicles.

For Ljerka Božičević Jurin, the workshop was a natural part of her early life. She spent valuable time there with her father and grandfather, playing with bearing balls.

The smell of petrol and oil, combined with daily technical conversations with customers, helped shape her professional path. She particularly enjoyed being placed inside a car by her father before it was raised on a lift, moments when her imagination transformed her into a Formula One driver or even the driver of a huge rubbish lorry.

Looking back, Ljerka believes that she was already absorbing the basic principles of a professional approach to work: nothing should be done by guesswork; every technical problem must be fully understood before a solution is attempted; and anyone who takes on a job must accept full and direct responsibility for it.

The family archive contains a striking photograph taken in the workshop around 40 years ago. In it, Ljerka poses with her grandfather while her father works on a car in the background.

Ljerka with her grandfather and her father working on a car in the background (Photo: Private album)

Today, when she looks at the photograph and then turns to look around the workshop, she is filled with a deep sense of pride and gratitude.

Her family built the business from scratch, enduring extremely difficult periods along the way.

The photograph remains a reminder of the long and challenging road behind them, and of how a strong reputation is built over decades.

To an outside observer, engine machining may appear to be a loud, demanding and dirty job. But within that complex world of metal and powerful machinery, Ljerka was drawn by an instinctive engineering curiosity.

She has always been interested in how systems work, but even more so in why they stop working.

That interest led her to study mechanical engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, choosing a design specialisation focused on engines and vehicles.

Her aim was to build on her extensive practical experience in the workshop with a deeper theoretical understanding of engine design and dynamics.

Today, one of the most fascinating and challenging parts of her work is the precise analysis of damage.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

This involves piecing together evidence from bearings, crankshafts, pistons, cylinders and valves to establish exactly what caused an engine failure.

Machining an individual component is not enough if the primary cause of the damage is not understood.

The workshop often receives engines that have already been repaired elsewhere. In such cases, the task is not simply to repeat the machining process, but to identify and permanently eliminate the hidden reason why the previous repair failed to solve the problem in the long term.

Engines are developing much faster today than they were 20 or 30 years ago. For that reason, Ljerka believes that people working in the sector must never stop learning.

Experience is invaluable, but without continuous training and keeping up with new technologies, it is no longer enough on its own.

Asked whether a degree gives a woman in a traditionally male profession a certain “shield” or brings greater respect when dealing with customers and colleagues, Ljerka takes a realistic view.

“A degree can certainly make the initial contact easier, but on its own it does not create the trust that is essential. In this sector, you have to be able to explain your conclusion, present precise measurements and stand firmly behind the decision you have made,” Ljerka explains.

She is aware that she entered the business with the considerable advantage of her father’s reputation. But that capital can quickly be lost if it is not backed up by her own daily work and expertise.

Today, her priority is not for customers to respect her simply because she is a woman with an academic qualification.

She wants them to know that they will receive a highly professional, well-reasoned and completely honest answer in her workshop, even when it is not what they want to hear.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Sometimes that means telling a customer directly that a particular component is not technically or economically worth repairing, or that a partial repair will not deliver the expected performance.

In the long term, trust is not built by simply saying “yes”. It is built by giving people the professional truth.

At Strojna obrada Božičević, the circle is now symbolically complete, with students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture coming to the workshop for practical training.

For Ljerka, passing knowledge on to a new generation of future professionals is deeply rewarding. The company has successfully worked with secondary technical schools for many years, while the arrival of students from her own faculty represents another important step.

The entire workshop team is actively involved in sharing knowledge. Ljerka is particularly proud when she sees the effort and patience her employees put into demonstrating to young people the practical skills they themselves have developed over decades.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

One memorable anecdote from the earlier stages of her career involved a customer who arrived outside official working hours. While speaking on the phone, he loudly remarked that he had found “just some woman” in the workshop.

Ljerka responded calmly and professionally, telling him that the boss was not currently there and that he should return the following day.

When the man returned the next morning, he was greeted by Ljerka herself, who confirmed that she was the owner of the business. His engine problem was successfully and quickly resolved.

Ljerka discreetly pretended never to have seen him before, while the customer himself never mentioned the uncomfortable incident from the previous day again.

There have also been occasions when customers have asked to speak to a man on the telephone. Ljerka would ask whether they wanted to speak to a machinist, a mechanic or an engineer.

They would choose the engineer, at which point Ljerka would proudly tell them that they were speaking to her.

Relations with male colleagues in the industry are now entirely professional and respectful. Her peers primarily see her as an equal and highly qualified colleague in the trade, rather than as a sensational exception simply because she is a woman.

People as the foundation of the business

The Božičević business can point to an achievement that is increasingly rare in today’s economic environment: more than 45 years of continuous operation and an average employee retention period of more than 20 years.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Ljerka stresses that there is no mysterious secret behind it.

A fair, adequate and regular salary must be the absolute minimum and the foundation of any business, rather than being treated as a special benefit.

People remain loyal to workplaces where their effort, work and specialised knowledge are genuinely valued, where they are treated as respected colleagues and where they have a strong sense of economic security and belonging.

The workshop employs highly skilled specialists whose practical knowledge of the technical details of the job is greater than that found in many factory manuals.

Management is fully aware of how valuable that experience is.

Ljerka strives to be as fair as possible, but does not want to romanticise the fact that it is a family business. First and foremost, it is a stable company, and high-quality work must be governed by clear and strict standards.

“It is precisely this combination of deep mutual respect and a high level of professional responsibility that has enabled us to remain united for so many decades. I am particularly pleased when people in our team progress, because a quality workshop is built on the knowledge of the entire collective, not on the will or genius of just one person,” she says.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Ljerka’s greatest professional satisfaction comes when the workshop receives a complete engine and can follow the entire process from an engineering perspective, from careful dismantling and precise measurement, through identifying the primary cause of the failure and machining the components, to reassembly.

In such cases, the team is not simply repairing an isolated part. It is taking full responsibility for the whole system.

Ljerka does not accept the superficial explanation that a failure “simply happened”.

Every mechanical failure has a precise cause, and the job is not considered complete until that cause has been accurately identified.

Behind every engine that returns to operation is someone’s livelihood. A lorry may urgently need to get back on the road, a tractor back into the fields or construction machinery back to a building site.

That is why the workshop never looks only at an individual component. It also considers how the entire engine will perform once it leaves the workshop.

Ljerka has a particular passion for older and historic engines, for which simple catalogue parts or ready-made computer-based solutions are often no longer available.

Ljerka with her father (Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Strojna obrada Božičević, based in Zagreb’s Savski gaj neighbourhood, has a clear goal: to remain a leading and reliable partner to the road transport, agricultural and construction sectors, where internal combustion engines are expected to remain indispensable for many years to come.

The business will continue to follow technological developments while investing in new knowledge and advanced equipment.

(Photo: Dejan Tatomir)

Ljerka Božičević Jurin wants customers to associate the Božičević name with an engineering approach to problem-solving, with problems demonstrated through measurements and every job backed by the name of the person responsible for it.

If her son, Borna, decides to continue the family story as the fourth generation, it must be his own personal decision, driven by a genuine love of mechanical engineering.