DigitalK 2020

Bradford Shane Shellhammer

Global Head of Buyer Engagement & Growth, eBay

Bradford Shellhammer has been named one of the ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’ by Fast Company and coined the ‘King of Quirk’ by Forbes Magazine and the ‘Eames of E-Commerce’ by USA Today.
Bradford is an entrepreneur with significant experience in creative direction and brand consulting. His unique vision is driven by his passion for design, fashion, and the arts. Most recently, he was Chief Design Officer of Backcountry. Previously, Bradford served as Founder and Chief Design Officer for Fab.com for four years. Fab was born from Bradford’s colorful outlook on life which was the driving force behind the company’s spirit and aesthetic. His direction across all parts of the business contributed to Fab’s instant global success. He led and inspired diverse teams including merchandising, editorial, graphic design, photography, UX, technology, and customer service. He was often times called the heart of the company – its culture formed from his passions and point of view. Prior to Fab, Bradford was a leader at both Blu Dot and Design Within Reach, launching retail concepts for both brands. And during the past 13 years Bradford has led project-based work with Shellhammer (previously Bradford Shellhammer Creative Workshop), a consultancy and design house specializing in creative direction, retail strategy, brand development, interior design, and editorial voice. Bradford was also the founding editor of the popular LGBT blog Queerty. Bradford has contributed to numerous magazines and publications; his byline appearing in: Full Frontal Fashion, Dwell, Huffington Post, and the Sundance Channel, and his homes being featured in Architectural Digest, Dwell, Hypebeast, Lonny, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The South China Morning Post, Time Out New York, and The Times of London. He’s been profiled in various publications including Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Wallpaper*, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Wired, etc.. Bradford is the recipient of the Webby, Crunchie, Wowie, and Bloggie awards. He sits on the Advisory Boards of Backcountry, Brit+Co., Heartwork, Madison Reed, Reissued, Shoppable, and Simply Framed. Bradford holds two degrees: a BA with honors in Communications and Media Studies from Goucher College and an AAS in Fashion Design from Parsons The New School For Design.

https://www.ebay.com

Grace Francis

Chief Experience Officer at Karmarama, ex-Droga5

Grace Francis is the Chief Experience Officer at Droga5 London, answering creative and commercial challenges using a combination of critical thinking and lateral problem solving. They are interested in ethics and empathy of design, how technology is shaping humanity and intersectionality, and the power of ideas that cannot be reached by logic alone. A design-thinking advocate, Grace is the founder of elsewherestudio.org, a program that uses design thinking to help individuals make better decisions when faced with step-changes and swerves in life and work. They are a guest lecturer on empathy and ethics in design at HyperIsland and serves as a mentor to members of Makerversity, the home of start-up maker businesses at Somerset House. Prior to Droga5, Grace was part of Grey London where they led experience design, developing product and service innovations for clients including HSBC, Marks & Spencer and GlaxoSmithKline. They also established Grey Consulting and worked on Grey’s Valenstein & Fatt diversity initiative during the agency’s centennial. Prior to Grey, Grace developed a content and UX offering at Isobar, working with clients including Adidas, Ikea, Lego and Disney.   Grace is a fan of failure, foreign idioms and post-it notes.
 

Bogomil Balkansky

Partner, Sequoia Capital

Gary Crawford

Group Director for Technology and Transformation, AKQA

Gary is fascinated with emerging technology, its impact on society and its potential for positive social change.
As Group Director for Technology and Transformation at AKQA, he has the honour of working with the worlds leading organisations, from airlines to automotive, lifestyle to retail, and FMCG to electronics, to realise the future, faster.
A veteran of startups, pure-plays and global enterprises, Gary blends design, business strategy and technology to transform businesses through the power of digital technology and culture.
He lives between Sweden and Scotland with his wife and daughters Erin and Erika.

Andre Le Masurier

Chief Creative Officer, R/GA Los Angeles

Andre sets the vision for R/GA Los Angeles leading all creative across the region. Previously he built Google Brand Studio, an in-house award winning creative team based in London overseeing EMEA. And before that he was CD at 72andSunny in Los Angeles leading Google work across Chrome, Chromebook, Chromecast, Made with Code, Google.org and the Star Wars partnership.  Andre has 15+ years of global brand experience, creating award-winning campaigns in traditional and digital channels across the globe. Before he landed at 72andSunny Andre was Group Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi LA working on Toyota and previous to that AKQA San Francisco where he proudly lead the Nike account as Creative Director. Thanks to many talented collaborators his work has been recognized by the likes of Cannes, D&AD, Clios, One Show, Webby Awards, ADCC, Marketing Awards, The FWA and Applied Arts to name a few. Andre has lead agencies and creative teams working on national and global brands including Amazon, McDonald’s, Eurosport, Google, Square, Nike, Xbox, Eurosport, General Motors, Nokia, Disney, Lexus, Dyson, Mastercard, T-Mobile, Old Navy and Samsung.

Adam Morgan

Executive Creative Director at Adobe

Adam Morgan is an Executive Creative Director at Adobe, with experience in creativity, strategy, and storytelling for 24 years. In 2020, AdWeek named him one of the "Creative 100"—the top inspiring creative minds in marketing, media, and culture—in the world. He’s the author of the book, "Sorry Spock, Emotion Drives Business," that proves the value of creativity and design with hard science. He’s a keynote speaker at conferences and events on the topics of creative leadership and content creation. And the host of the podcast, Real Creative Leadership, that offers inspiration and guidance on the day-to-day job of being a creative leader.
Before Adobe, he was a creative director at several international ad agencies, delivering award-winning advertising and campaigns. He was named a 40 under 40 business leader by Utah Business Magazine, and Utah Ad Professional of the Year in 2014. And he’s one of the few creative leaders to have a master’s degree in marketing strategy from Northwestern. To read one of his articles on data-driven creativity, you can visit his magazine "The Creative Machine" on Medium. Or learn more about his book and speaking topics at adamWmorgan.com.
 

Irina Scarlat

Head of Growth - CEE, Revolut

Entrepreneur at heart, full-stack marketer and experienced people & projects manager, Irina Scarlat has 10+ years of business experience, 7 of them in tech, product marketing & managing teams. She is currently leading Revolut’s growth marketing efforts across Central & Eastern Europe (Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia & Bulgaria) as Head of Growth - CEE. Before joining forces with Revolut, she has been leading Uber's marketing efforts in Romania, shaping the local strategy and working on strategic regional projects & initiatives. During her time at Uber she launched 3 cities, scaled the market to 1M users and built the marketing team from scratch. She is a global citizen that has been living, studying & working in seven cities across Europe and the United States and she speaks four foreign languages.

Dima Peteva

Head of Brand Marketing at SiteGround

Dima oversees all brand marketing initiatives at SiteGround, a leading international website hosting and software company, founded in Bulgaria. SiteGround powers over 2 000 000 website domains of clients from all over the world and is one of the most recognized names in its field. In Bulgaria, the company is continuously voted among the Best Employers in the IT sector, thanks to its strong company culture, consistent brand values and focus on team wellbeing. Since joining the company as one of its first employees in 2004, Dima has played a key role in different departments such as Project Management, Product and Creative Marketing, as well as in the strategic planning and development of a couple of sub-brands. Due to the rapid growth of the company in the past couple of years, her work focuses on maintaining the SiteGround signature voice both as a product and service provider, and an employer in the dynamic field of tech and digital services.

Vassil Terziev

Angel investor & Partner at Eleven Ventures

Went through all the stages of a company's life - started one, went through rapid growth, made a notable exit and then worked for a US public company. These days I try to share all those varied experiences with younger entrepreneurs so that they can avoid many of the mistakes we did with Telerik (and make new ones:)). I do that through through my roles in Endeavor Bulgaria, Eleven and Launchub and also through active investing in early stage companies. I am passionate about education as I believe that is the foundation for the success of any individual or society. I am fortunate to be again partnering with my co-founders at Telerik around our new venture - Telerik Academy, a leading educational initiative for training software engineers.

Lyuben Belov

Managing partner Launchub Ventures

I co-founded Net Info in late 1998 and lead it as CEO until 2007 to reach # 1 position on Bulgaria internet media market with our brands Gyuvetch and ABV.bg. My greаtest achievement was building a high profile team that succeeded to create a sustainable business with 80% reach on target market and 50% market share (in terms of revenue).
Currently, I am helping run LAUNCHub Ventures (Launch Hub) is a SEED fund with EUR 27M under management focused on investing in the "digital domain"- consumer internet, e-commerce, digital media, mobile in the SEE region. We are aiming at helping young and upcoming entrepreneurs disrupt industries- the ones that we want to see mostly changed- finance, entertainment, education among others.
Specialities: Although holding a degree of law from Sofia University I feel much better in online media and internet services business

Maria Atanasova

Human Capital Director for EMEA at Progress and part of the leadership team of the company in Bulgaria

Maria Atanasova has been part of the Human Capital team at Progress (Telerik back then) since 2010 and has had a dynamic career path following the growth of the company. Today, Maria is Director of Human Capital for the entire EMEA region, responsible for the overall employee experience, people operations and HR development in three major offices - Bulgaria, UK and the Netherlands. She is also a global Strategic Business Partner for the CIO organization and two of the product development business units at Progress. Maria has extensive experience in the full spectrum of HR management, currently focusing her efforts on building the organizational design and organization health of various leadership teams, creating tailor-made people programs to support the business units’ strategic objectives. She has led the research, assessment and development of key global company initiatives such as Progress’ employer branding, global talent acquisition philosophy and candidate experience journey. Maria has experience with the people and culture side of an M&A process from due diligence to building retention and integration plans. Maria has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University in Bulgaria, a diploma in Human Resource Management from CIPD, and an HCI Strategic HR Business Partner certification. In August 2020, Maria joined the global entrepreneurship network, Endeavor, as a mentor. She is helping startups discover and leverage the power of human capital to succeed.

Iain McDonald

Head of Digital, CNN International Commercial

Iain McDonald is CNN International Commercial’s Head of Digital. In his role, Iain works with a range of high-profile clients across a broad spectrum of sectors including travel, luxury and B2B, creating impactful digital marketing campaigns. Prior to joining CNN International Commercial he led Quartz’s European brand studio, and spent a number of years working in media and content agencies.

Delian Asparouhov

Principal at Founders Fund

Delian Asparouhov is a principal at Founders Fund.  Before joining Founders Fund, he was a principal at Khosla Vetnures, head of growth at Teespring, and founder of a healthcare company called Nightingale.  Delian is Bulgarian, attended MIT, and likes to ski and play soccer.

Ivan Dimov

CEO of the Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center

Ivan Dimov is CEO of the Bulgarian Entrepreneurship Center, an organization building a two-way bridge between Silicon Valley and the Bulgarian entrepreneurial ecosystem, and Founder and Chairman of Single Step Foundation, which supports, motivates and empowers young LGBTI people in Bulgaria. His professional career is in the field of finance: as an investment banker and private equity investor in New York and Sydney, Australia in the media, telecommunications and technology sectors. Ivan is a keen marathon runner, CrossFit athlete and world traveler.

Christoph Sollich

The Pitch Doctor

Christoph is known as "The Pitch Doctor" in the Berlin startup scene and beyond. After working in advertising, he got into startups in 2007, and has since worked in almost all roles related to that industry. All his own startup ideas have failed miserably. For the last 6 years, he's helped 1700+ startups (and an ever growing number of corporate intrapreneurs) improve the way they pitch to investors, partners, management boards etc. He's a mentor/coach for dozens of accelerators, incubators, corporate innovation labs and startup competitions around Europe. Christoph is also a tiny bit famous for doing funny pitches, e.g. RydeMyPony (the "Airbnb for Ponies") and the "Berlin Pitch" (pitching why Berlin is the best city for startups). If you ever meet Christoph, and he's not wearing a brightly colored adidas jacket - it's not Christoph.
 

Pavlina Yanakieva

CEO of Bulgaria Innovation Hub

Pavlina Yanakieva is a purpose-driven growth strategist leveraging business insights, strategic perspectives and partnership fluency to drive results for global early-stage startups and social enterprises.
In the last 20 years, she developed strong business ecosystems by fostering partnerships around innovation and strategy deployment for large technology leaders such as Google, AT&T, T-Mobile, Black & Veatch and others. She expanded their corporate footprint to new markets, managed over $200M in assets and led integrated execution for the deployment of 4G LTE in Northern California. Pavlina is an advocate for economic and leadership advancement of women and children, an advisory board member and a mentor for tech startups and social impact organizations such as Teach for Bulgaria, Founders Institute and others. As the CEO of Bulgaria Innovation Hub, an early-stage accelerator for Bulgarian startups in Silicon Valley, Pavlina is determined to elevate technology startups from her homeland to global dominance and place Bulgaria on the world map as a technology innovation destination. She is passionate about utilizing technology, education and human connection to solve complex real-life problems that impact real people.
She holds Bachelor in International Business from San Jose State University and is a lifetime learner at Stanford and UC Berkeley innovation and entrepreneurial programs.

Xavier Marcenac

Co-founder Nasekomo

Xavier Marcenac is a seasoned executive with some 25 years experience in multinational companies in consulting, finance and M&A positions. He is the co-founder of several successful companies in the BPO industry. Xavier is the founder and now vice-chaiman of TELUS International Europe Europe, a leader in the BPO services in Europe with close to 5000 employees. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and is a graduated IT engineer as well as chartered accountant. Xavier launched in 2017 his new venture, Nasekomo, a biotechnology company aiming at converting organic waste into high value animal protein for the feed industry through the use of insects, thus helping to make our planet greener, by reducing waste, gas emissions and providing more affordable ingredient to feed the growing population of our planet.

Petr Baron

CEO of TBIF

Petr Baron CEO of TBIF (TBI Bank – Bulgaria’s most profitable and efficient bank/K10 ) has extensive experience in retail banking with focus on digital transformation and business evolution. He held CEO roles and multiple board positions in financial industries across European markets, leading companies to provide best-in-class financial instruments, create innovative and scalable business and foster best practices. Angel investor in fintech, technology and e-commerce. Public speaker and panellist for major fintech events.

Pavel Velkov

Managing Partner at Morningside Hill Capital Management

Pavel Velkov has over 15 years of experience in the field of finance and investments. Prior to launching Morningside Hill in 2014, Pavel has garnered a wide ranging investment experience in Europe, North America and Africa. Pavel has held various investment positions at funds with strategies covering venture capital, private equity, publicly traded equities, corporate and government bonds, distressed and special situations and convertible arbitrage. He holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, a B.A. from the American University in Bulgaria and is a CFA charterholder.

Andrei Popescu

Country Manager at eMAG Bulgaria

Fast track MBA at Maastricht School of Management
Master's Degree in Advanced Research in Finance
For the last 6 years i have worked for some of the most important companies on the Romanian market, which offered me the opportunity of gaining strong expertise in e-Commerce, Sales, Retail, Financial and Human Capital.
I participated in business analysis, identification of improvement solutions, designing workflows and project implementation in various areas such as: e-commerce, retail, food & beverages, banking & insurance, public sector, energy etc.
Colleagues know me as a highly dedicated person, capable of coming up anytime with creative ideas and new approaches. I'm always interested in achieving the job well done by understanding the client needs and putting him first.

Aleksandar Terziyski

Partner at NV3 Venture Fund

Aleksandar is a partner at NV3 Fund and Investment Manager at NEVEQ II Fund – early stage VC funds investing in tech-enabled businesses. He is actively engaged in the investment, portfolio management and exit processes. He is also a BoD member and/or member of the M&A committee at six portfolio companies with global footprint and total revenue of over €50M. His areas of focus include FinTech, Tech Platforms/Ecosystems and Cloud investments Previously, he was a Strategy Consultant at Roland Berger where he worked on various large-scale projects in CEE including internationalization strategy, strategic and business planning and market-entry projects.

Filip Genov

CEO, F27

25+ years in banking, innovations and technology Founder & MD of Sophia Lab, the leading digital transformation and acceleration think tank in Southeast Europe Founder & MD of the first banking & FinTech VC operation in the Southeast Europe Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the FinTech and InsureTech Summit, the biggest industrial forum in the Southeast Europe Member of the Vienna Initiative, CEE’s lead expert on financial instruments for innovative and fast growing companies Co-Founder of the Strategic Center for Artificial Intelligence for Southeast Europe, based in Sofia Served on the Executive Committee of the Factors Chain International and Strategy and aide to the Executive Committee of CEDEC Created and managed three 500+ million euro financial businesses MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, the London School of Economics and Political Science and HEC Paris

Jennifer Hirsch

Global Startup Leader & Futurist

I believe in uncommon solutions - quite simply as I've had to invent many in my different entrepreneurial, corporate and personal challenges along the way.
Stories are my favorite tool - whether working on my own or with others. I won the 1st grade statewide reading contest along with earning the nickname "Miss Poetry." My love of stories has only increased exponentially since then.
In 2012, I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury from a snowboarding accident (see TED talk below). Given I slept 18 hours a day, could barely walk a block and any noise beyond a household caused severe vertigo, nausea and migraines, I discovered a number of unconventional solutions. And renewed my love in stories.
How we tell stories is how we connect to others and create the change we want to see in the world. I am primarily interested in connecting with creatives, entrepreneurs and change makers focused on creating true disruption in the world.
In my role as Global Technology Trend Scout, I continue to work with the startup and innovation system focusing on what can impact the way we work and connect across the globe. Specific verticals listed below.
My personal interest is surfing...and following the ongoing narrative of how we live in more harmony with our nature. Not to mention how powerful & pioneering women can learn from each other and the water while learning how to surf.
Words others have used to describe me: thoughtful leader, creative problem solver, and enthusiastic advocate.

Saasha Celestial-One

COO & Co-Founder of OLIO

Saasha Celestial-One is COO & Co-Founder of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste, which is the 3rd largest contributor to the climate crisis. OLIO is growing quickly, with 2m users who have successfully shared over 3m portions of food in 49 countries, empowered by 50k+ volunteers. Before OLIO, Saasha spent 13yrs at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey & American Express. Saasha has an MBA from Stanford, is mum to 7-year-old Nolan, and the proud daughter of hippy entrepreneurs. 

Mihnea Gheorghiu

Global Executive Creative Director, Publicis Italy

Mihnea got into advertising when he was 19 in Bucharest, Romania.
In the years that followed, he worked in Hamburg, Paris, London, Madrid, Toronto, New York and Amsterdam. The work he created and creative directed over the years has won over two hundred awards (Cannes, D&AD, Clio, One Show, ANDY, NYF, LIAA, Eurobest, Epica) and mean comments on some advertising blogs.
Mihnea likes to think of new things to say or new ways to say the same things. He really enjoys that stuff. That, and raccoons. Mihnea thinks that raccoons are cool.
Since 2017, he is in Publicis Milan, overseeing all the global work for DIESEL and Heineken.

Georgi Gavazov

Founder, the other half

Georgi’s professional path started at the marketing team of global snowboard giant Burton. He later switched to advertising, worked as a strategist for a number of prominent brands, won numerous local and international awards, and in 2015 became Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Sofia. In 2018, he founded the other half – a consultancy specializing in strategic communications and brand building done right.
Despite being born at the sea, he is truly bad at surfing, yet for some weird reason, he keeps trying instead of just sticking to snowboarding (where his skills are somewhat acceptable).

Valeri Valtchev

Co-Founder Phos, Software POS

Valeri Valtchev is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with success stories across multiple industries. Since 2015 he focuses entirely on the fintech sector. Among others, Valeri Valtchev co-founded the three businesses Paynetics, an end to end payments provider licensed across the European Union, Phos, an innovative point of sale solution empowering contactless payments on any Android device, as well as Phyre, the leading e-wallet provider in Bulgaria. His passion to leverage technology to make financial solutions smarter and at the same time more inclusive also led him to initiate the Bulgarian FinTech Association, which he currently serves as Chairman of the Management Board.

Oliver Holle

Co-founder and Managing Partner of Speedinvest

In 1997, Oliver was working on his PhD thesis in Economics at Columbia University when he decided to switch paths and found a company. This was long before Europe was familiar with terms like mobile, entrepreneur or startup. The "crazy" decision laid the foundation for Oliver to later become a co-founder and Managing Partner of Speedinvest.
After raising way too much money and spending it all in the first tech bubble of the early 2000’s, Oliver and his team battled for three long years against insolvency. They finally emerged with a successful pivot into mobile data. Oliver then merged his company with two other startups and became 3united AG – a highly profitable European leader in mobile content and messaging. 3united was acquired by Verisign and took Oliver to Silicon Valley, where he spent two years with one of the most ambitious US-based tech companies of the era.

Janet Todorova

Head of Expansion at the Founder Institute (FI)

Janet is Head of Expansion at the Founder Institute (FI), the largest pre-seed startup accelerator globally, and also leads the FI Bulgaria office. Previously, she was one of the FI Directors running the program in Berlin and now in Sofia. Along with that, Janet has previous experience working in product development in FinTech at Paysafe and in business development in HRinTech at Honeypot.io. She’s passionate to bring the Bulgarian startup ecosystem to the next level so she’s also involved in organising DigitalK Conference, React.NotAConf and SHEleader.digital. Janet is a fan of science, technology and psychology.

Sevdalina Vassileva

General Manager for Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus, Visa

Sevdalina Vassileva is the General Manager for Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus, Visa. Part of the leadership team of the world’s leading payments network, she is an avid advocate of the benefits that digital payments and technology bring to the economy, business and individuals.
Sevdalina joins Visa with 20+ years of executive experience and expertise in Banking, FMCG, technology and innovation. Most recently, she served as Executive Director and Chief Retail Banking Officer for First Investment Bank managing the retail, payments and digital technology areas. Prior to that, she held key executive-level positions in Alpha Bank and in Eurobank in Bulgaria.
Sevdalina brings strong expertise in retail sales and marketing. Her career began in Coca - Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, where she held various high-level positions in marketing and sales, including management of national key accounts and being part of the company’s global accounts team. Later on, she worked in the dairy industry with private equity investors leading the company-wide transformation of United Milk Company.
Sevdalina is actively working with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, mentoring and advising start-up companies in the areas of technology and social impact. She is one of the initiators of the Visa Innovation Program, started in Bulgaria in cooperation with Eleven Ventures back in 2018, and has ever since remained a key contributor to its successful expansion in the SEE region. Sevdalina is an active voice for women empowerment and SME enablement for recovery and growth through access to digital technology and financial inclusion.
Sevdalina graduated the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Sofia University with an MBA degree in Management Information Systems. She specialized in Marketing and Management at Lund University, Sweden. She is the Chair of the Alumni Association of Sofia University and is a former member of the board of directors of Diners Club Bulgaria.
 

Vladimir Danailov

Executive Director, Member of the Management Board, Fund of Funds

Vladimir Danailov has extensive experience in the public and private sectors in the country and abroad. Since 2016 he is the CEO of Sofia Investment Agency (SIA), where he manages to increase the economic development and the interest of international partners and investors in the Bulgarian capital city. During his term of office, key partnerships are established with other European cities such as Vienna and London, and Sofia is successfully represented at multiple international events. The results of the Agency in this period give grounds to create a new policy priority division "Digitalization, Innovation and Economic Development" at the Municipality of Sofia, the coordination of which Danailov takes over in his capacity as Deputy Mayor since early 2020. Vladimir Danailov holds a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Management from the Technical University of Sofia and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the American University in Bulgaria.

Galin Bonev

Co-founder and CEO, Econic One

Galin Bonev is co-founder and CEO of Econic One e-bikes. He founded the company in 2015 with the mission to make our cities a better and healthier place to live by reducing air pollution caused by cars. He provides a faster, more accessible and sustainable alternative to motorized vehicles used in cities by tailor-made design and local manufacturing of smart electric bicycles. His latest project is the development of the SUV of e-bikes - SMART, CONNECTED, ALL PURPOSE, which will accelerate the transition to truly sustainable mode of city transport.
Before founding Econic One, Galin was a Financial Auditor at Deloitte for 6 years, where he worked with Multinational companies from different industries. After that he worked 6 years as Head of Reporting and Controlling for a Bulgarian holding company with more than a billion annual consolidated revenues. He is an expert in Micro mobility and enthusiast biker. Galin has a Master’s degree in International Finance and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Economics in Varna, Bulgaria.

Svetozar Georgiev

Co-founder of Telerik, Telerik Academy and Campus X

Svetozar Georgiev is a co-founder of Telerik, Telerik Academy and Campus X. After spending 14 years building a global software company, he is now dedicated to sharing his learnings with the next generation of Bulgarian entrepreneurs.
As a co-founder and co-CEO of Telerik, Svetozar has been instrumental in steering the company from a bootstrapped startup to a global market leader, employing 850+ people in 11 offices around the world. Today, he is overseeing the development the educational institutions Telerik Academy and Telerik Academy Foundation, as well as the biggest private incubator in Bulgaria – Campus X.
Svetozar is also an active mentor, advisor and angel investor, working with numerous startups and community organizations. His mission is to help the local tech and start-up ecosystems evolve and become strong bottom-up forces for positive change in Bulgaria.
 

Kim-Erik Aanes

Chief Executive Officer at SKADE

Kim-Erik Aanes is Chief Executive Officer at SKADE
- 20 years of experience within esports.
- Manager for esports teams since 2010
- Acknowledged as one of Norway's leading experts on the field.
- More than 30 national titles as a manager
- Developed some of Norway's and Europe's biggest talents in esports.
- 5 years of experience as an esports teacher
 

Konstantin Dinev

CEO, Bellum Gens

For the past 1.5 years, Konstantin Dinev is actively engaged in Esports, as a founder of Bellum Gens - an esports event management organization. Konstantin Dinev is also working as a Director of Product Development at Infragistics and has spent the last decade engineering software products and developing and implementing software development processes.

Tatyana Mitkova

co-founder and CEO of ClaimCompass

Tatyana Mitkova is co-founder and CEO of ClaimCompass - a company that helps passengers save money when they travel and get compensated when their trip is disrupted. Her startup has raised $1.8M to date and is backed by Silicon Valley's 500 Startups, Social Capital and Hustle Fund. Tatyana is among the listmakers of Forbes Bulgaria and Europe's 30 under 30 and part of EY's Entrepreneurial Winning Women. She enjoys working with early-stage entrepreneurs as a co-director at the Balkan chapter of Founder Institute.

Wouter Torfs

Senior Research Officer, European Investment Fund

Wouter joined the research and market analysis team of EIF five years ago. Since then, he has been working on empirical research regarding SME access to finance in general, with a focus on topics such as social impact investing and social enterprises, Business Angel investing, and Green Finance, among other things. Before joining EIF, he worked for the European Commission on the evaluation of the EU Cohesion Policy. Wouter holds a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of Leuven.

Maximilian Schausberger

Managing Director of Elevator Ventures

Maximilian Schausberger is Managing Director of Elevator Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital entity of Raiffeisen Bank International. Elevator Ventures’ primary focus is on early stage and growth investments in fintechs and related enabling technologies in Central and Eastern Europe. RBI Group’s expertise, network and corporate strength helps Elevator Ventures’ portfolio companies to expand across this dynamic region and beyond. Maximilian has been a fintech fan from day one and is a frequent speaker at international fintech conferences. Forbes listed him on 30 Under 30 in the investment category.

Victor Trokoudes

CEO & Co-founder of Plum

Meet Victor - CEO & Co-founder of Plum. A Harvard and INSEAD alumni and a serial entrepreneur. From the start of his career in financial services, he wanted to challenge what is a very traditional & slow-moving space. Good timing when Alex Michel (co-founder) came along and they both created Plum! Initially starting as a Facebook messenger chatbot, the ‘Financial Assistant’ soon migrated as an app on iOS and Android, and from an automated savings tool using AI to link to users’ bank accounts, it turned now into a one-stop shop for personal finance, offering switching to cheaper utility bills and investing in pre-picked funds with as little as £1! Victor has raised funds for Plum a few times, last round ($10M) closed during corona, with one new investor all the way from Japan (Global Brain). Currently offering Plum to users with UK bank accounts only, Plum is now entering Europe and linking to Euro bank accounts, already launched an alpha version in Ireland, Spain and France. Victor’s vision is for Plum users to grow 5 times more with the expansion from our current 1M base. He’s proud to see Plum’s Team doubled in size over the last 6 months, now over 65+, and feels ready for helping people become financially better off across borders!

Iravan Hira

Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise operated by Selectium

Ludmila Malcheva

Founder & CEO Right Image

Todor Breshkov

Founding Partner, LAUNCHUb Ventures

Todor, investment banker turned vc investor, is the cofounder and managing partner at LAUNCHub Ventures.He is also a cofounder and member of the BD of Bulgarian Real Estate Fund, focused in managing office real estate in Bulgaria and the biggest REIT listed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange Sofia. Todor has substantial experience in investment banking, real estate, insurance and M&A deals.

Raya Yunakova

Investor, LAUNCHub Ventures

Raya is responsible for sourcing, evaluating and leading new investments for LAUNCHub Ventures.
Raya was part of Pi Labs, a London-based venture capital firm investing in early stage technology companies in the real estate sector, where she managed the pre-seed investments and early stage growth programme. She also conducted the technical due diligence for the fund’s seed investments. Before Pi Labs, Raya was responsible for Microsoft’s technical audience relations in 25 countries across Europe and Central Asia. She is also a co-founder of Nimero, a technology startup with a focus on the education space.

Ohad Maimon

EVP Business Development & Strategy at MAX

Experienced Executive Vice President Business Development with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Skilled in Negotiation, E-payments, Mobile Payments, Business Development, and Emerging Payments. Strong business development professional with a LL.M focused in Law from Tel Aviv University.

Vanya Lazarova

CEO Coaching and Leadership Development | San Francisco Bay | NYC

As a coach, Vanya partners with CEOs and leadership teams in the Startup and VC ecosystem, on their journey of scaling their companies and culture. She supports her clients to navigate the challenges of fast growth, with focus on leadership development, people and culture and bringing a structure to scale within their organizations.
It's her mission to facilitate profound exploration of the inner world to leaders who want to meaningfully influence the outer world. She supports purpose driven CEO's who have passed the self-making stage and are now looking to truly contribute to the world, solving problems connected to the wellbeing of people, communities and our planet.
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Dina Katabi

Andrew & Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT

Dina Katabi is the Andrew & Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a co-founder of Emerald Innovations Inc. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, and the Director of the centre for wireless networks and mobile computing at MIT.  Dr Katabi is the inventor of the "Emerald" radio wave sensor to conduct in-home clinical trials using contactless monitoring of physiological signals. Her technical interests span digital health, mobile systems, wireless sensing, and machine learning. She develops new technologies, models and systems that provide non-invasive health monitoring, enables smart homes, improves WiFi and cellular performance, and deliver new applications that are not feasible given today's technologies. Dr Katabi received her PhD and MS degrees from MIT in 2003 and 1999, and her Bachelor of Science from Damascus University in 1995.  She was recognized with multiple prestigious awards including the ACM Prize in Computing, the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, two SIGCOMM Test of Time Awards, a Sloan Fellowship, the IEEE William R. Bennett Prize, and multiple best paper awards.  Several start-ups have been spun out of Katabi's lab such as PiCharging and Emerald Innovations.

Mirela Yordanova

Associate at LAUNCHub Ventures

Mirela is actively supporting the existing companies in LAUNCHub’s portfolio. She is contributing to all aspects of deal flow from sourcing, screening and evaluating new investment opportunities.
Most recently, as the Community Engagement Manager at Google for Startups in London she was focused on accelerating startups through education and fostering connections between investors and founders by developing high-impact programs. Working with Google has allowed Mirela to connect with founders globally across the UK, Asia, Europe and CEE.

 

Roi Ben Daniel

Digital Partnerships & Ventures, Europe, Visa

Roi works on digital partnerships and venture investments with European Fintechs and digital platforms, across stages. Roi holds a dual degree in Law and Accounting, and is currently an MBA candidate at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Dogan Turan

Turkish entrepreneur, Co-Founder & CEO of Glocalzone

Doğan is a young Turkish entrepreneur, Co-Founder & CEO of Glocalzone.
He has generally worked on a product management role in 4 different startups for the last six
years. In 2018, he co-founded Glocalzone to solve the product access problem all over the
world. At the same time, Alumni at the Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation.
Glocalzone is a peer to peer marketplace that solves the product accessibility problem all over
the world. And an opportunity for #travelforfree from one country to another.
If you want to buy any product from abroad, you can ask it from Glocalzone travelers, and they
can bring it for you! If you have a travel, you can add on Glocalzone with details and receive
product requests. Bring them with and earn money while you are traveling.
They have around 200K users from different countries since 2019 March.
 

Stoil Vasilev

VP Corporate Development at SumUp

Experienced Vice President Corporate Development with ademonstrated history of working in the financial services industry.Skilled in Valuation, Corporate Finance, Investments, Private Equity,and Financial Analysis. Strong information technology professionalgraduated from Stopanska akademija 'Dimitr Èenov'.