Sanela Diana Jenkins

Early life

Born in Sarajevo, Jenkins is the elder of two children in a middle-class Bosniak family. Her mother was an accountant and her father was an economist. She grew up in the concrete-block apartments that characterized communist-era Yugoslavia. Jenkins studied economics at the University of Sarajevo, but the outbreak of war in 1992 forced her to flee her home and spend more than a year in Croatia as a refugee before emigrating to London.

Career

While still a student in London, she acquired the swimwear line Melissa Odabash.

She produced a photography book entitled "Room 23", photographed by Deborah Anderson. Many of the celebrities in the book are friends of Jenkins, including George Clooney and Elton John. Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit several philanthropic programs.

In 2009, Jenkins created and launched the Neuro line of functional beverages. Based in Burbank, Neuro produces drinks with natural ingredients and packaged with recycled materials. Neuro products are distributed in the United States and sold at nationwide retail chains including Target Corporation, Walgreens, Safeway Inc, and Seven Eleven. The drinks aim to fill a variety of needs over the course of the day and include such descriptive names as Passion, Sleep, Sonic, Trim, Daily, and Bliss.

In 2012, Diana launched D Empire Entertainment, a full service Media/Music label whose collaborators include multi-platinum recording artists and producers like OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder, Chris Brown, Sean Kingston and will be releasing the breakout album of flagship artist Asher Monroe later in 2013.

Philanthropic activities

Diana Jenkins established The Irnis Catic Foundation in 2002 in memory of her brother who was killed during the Bosnian Conflict. The foundation provides essential funding to the medical facilities at the University of Sarajevo. In 2009, Diana Jenkins was awarded the Peace Connection prize by the Center for Peace and Multi-Ethnic Cooperation. Past winners have included Bono and Nelson Mandela.

She established the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles in August 2008. The clinic concentrates on legal advocacy, political advocacy and documentation. It is the first endowed program on international justice and human rights at any law school in the western United States.

Immediately following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Jenkins and actor Sean Penn established the Jenkins-Penn Haitian Relief Organization to deliver hospital supplies and provide medical care to thousands of displaced Haitians. She compared the long-term recovery in Haiti to that in Bosnia, highlighted the need for basic humanitarian aid, and argued that the U.S. military should not leave the country prematurely.

A supporter of AIDS research, Jenkins has organized and hosted fundraisers for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. On 7 March 2010, Jenkins and Neuro sponsored and co-chaired the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party. The event raised $3.7 million. In October 2009, she co-hosted with Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon the launch of Project PEP in support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. She now remains an active fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Clinton Foundation.

In March 2010, Jenkins posted bail for former Bosnian President Ejup Ganić, who was detained in London on a Serbian extradition request.

In August 2010 her TV station TV1, which has its headquarters in Sarajevo will start to air its program.

Personal life

In 1999, she married banker Roger Jenkins. The couple met at the gym at the Barbican, where Jenkins was living after the end of his marriage to his first wife, a banker at Barclays. They have two children together. She received an estimated £150million after her ten-year marriage to Jenkins. The estranged couple called their 2011 split as ‘the happiest divorce ever’ and as she joined him among Britain’s wealthiest 500 individuals in 2012.