Jovan "Jovo" Kurtović Giovanni Curtovich

Entrepreneur and shipping magnate. Born in Začula (Herzegovina), Jovo became a prominent and educated merchant in Trebinje before he came to settle in Trieste in 1737. He is credited, together with Johann I. de Verpoorten, for establishing maritime trade with the United States of America, not long after the British surrender. He brought three of his brothers over from Herzegovina getting to set up a branches of the business in western Turkey at Smyrna, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Prague. He was one the most famous shipping tycoons of his time with a fleet of merchant ships which sailed the seven seas. he is also considered one of the founding father of commercial trade in Trieste.