Annual Business Forum: Industry 4.0 2018

Ivan Totev

Mayor of Plovdiv

Eng. Ivan Totev holds a Master's degree of Engineering with Diploma from Technical University Sofia, speciality Computer Systems and Technologies. Also in May 2010 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at Plovdiv University "Paisiy Hilendarski", speciality Public Administration, Master's degree. He received excellent mark for his Thesis on "Regional policies of the European Union on security and stability. The Black Sea Synergy – the new EU initiative in the Black Sea region". Ivan Totev started his career in 1997 as a graphic designer in a Publishing House. From 2001 to 2004 he worked as Project Manager in a software company. From 2004 to 2007 he was a Technical Director in a hotel complex. In November 2007 he became mayor of District "East" at Plovdiv Municipality. From August 2009 to October 2011 he was the Governor of Plovdiv Region. In October 2011 he was elected Mayor of Plovdiv as a candidate from PP GERB. Four years later he was re-elected for a second mandate.

Emil Karanikolov

Minister of Economy of Bulgaria

Ognian Zlatev

Head of the European Commission's Representation

Gunnar Muent

Director of the Innovation and Competitiveness Department EIB

Gunnar Muent works with the European Investment Bank (EIB) in Luxemburg. He is currently Director of the Bank’s Innovation and Competitiveness Department within EIB’s Projects Directorate that is responsible for the technical and commercial due diligence of investment proposals. The department is focusing on R&D-intensive sectors, including the engineering, automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical and telecoms industries, as well as the education and health sectors. Gunnar holds degrees in industrial engineering and a doctorate from technical universities in Germany. Prior to joining EIB, he worked as researcher at the German Fraunhofer Society and in various positions in the chemical industry.

Rolf Kuby

Member of the Managing Board of EUROMETAUX, Head of AURUBIS GROUP REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE BRUSSELS

Rolf Kuby works as Head of the External Affairs office in Brussels. The position includes building and maintaining a close relationship with stakeholders from policy, associations and industry on all politically relevant issues for Aurubis on a European level. He has a long standing experience in European affairs and previously worked for different German associations. Rolf Kuby is Chair of the Sustainability Committee and Member of the Management Board of Eurometaux. He studied Economics in Germany and Belgium.

Andras Kadocsa

Partner, McKinsey & Company

András Kadocsa is a Partner, co-leader of McKinsey Digital Manufacturing, McKinsey’s global initiative on Industry 4.0. Since joining the Firm in May 2007, he has served automotive OEMs and suppliers, industry and energy clients. He focuses on Industry 4.0 / digital manufacturing transformation, operational performance improvement, product and production design and long term strategy planning

Levon Hampartzoumian

CEO and Chairman of the MB of UniCredit Bulbank

Levon Hampartzoumian is the CEO and Chairman of the MB of UniCredit Bulbank since 2001. He is member of the Managing Board of BORICA. From April 2005 to April 2008 and April 2011 - April 2015 he is Chairman of the Management Board of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria. Levon Hampartzoumian is a non-executive member of the Board of the Institute for Market Economy. from 2008 to 2012 he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sofia University. Levon Hamparztoumian is awarded with the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana) and is honoured with the title Commendatore of the Order at the beginning of May 2008 with a Decree of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. Levon Hamparztoumian is awarded with the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana) and is honoured with the title Commendatore of the Order at the beginning of May 2008 with a Decree of the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano. In 2007 Mr. Hampartzoumian was awarded by "Atanas Bourov" Foundation for bank management; he is also announced "Banker of the year" twice – by Finance Central Europe magazine in 2005 and by Banker weekly in 2007. In 2006 Mr. Hampartzoumian is awarded for management by Manager Magazine. ПИн 2015 the CEO of UniCredit Bulbank was awarded with Grand Silver Merit Badge of the Republic of Austria. Levon Hampartzoumian has a degree in Chemical Engineering and professional experience working for PriceWaterHouse Coopers and Earnst&Young. During 1999-2001 he was consecutively Deputy Minister of Economy and Executive Director of Sofia’s Privatization Agency.

Julian Popov

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Buildings Performance Institute; Fellow, European Climate Foundation

Julian Popov is a Fellow of The European Climate Foundation and Chairman of the Buildings Performance Institute Europe. He currently leads the South East Europe Initiative which catalyses high level energy policy cooperation among countries in wider South East Europe, including Turkey and the Western Balkans. Julian is a former Minister of Environment of Bulgaria and energy security adviser to the Bulgarian President, the founding CEO and current Board Member of the New Bulgarian University, the former Chairman and current Board Member of the Bulgarian School of Politics and the co-founder of the Tunisian School of Politics. He was recently voted as one of the 40 most influential voices in European energy policy. Julian is the author of two books and writes regularly on current affairs, climate and energy policies and energy security.

Milap Patel

Director of AI Strategy & Transformation, Ericsson

Milap Patel is currently Director of AI Strategy & Transformation at Ericsson. His main responsibility is to set the strategy and roadmap for digital transformation of Ericsson through AI – ultimately resulting in engaged customers, intelligent operations, empowered employees and transformed offerings. Currently Milap’s focus is primarily on cognitive automation of Ericsson’s global support operations and managed services. Prior to joining Ericsson, Milap worked as a Management Consultant for EY Advisory in the Nordics, focusing on digital strategy and transformation.

Ollivier Quéruel

General Manager, LATÉCOÈRE

Ollivier Quéruel is a general Manager of "LATÉCOÈRE Bulgaria" since 2016. He took part in the creation of the industrial plant in Bulgaria. From 2010 to 2016 Ollivier was a Plant Manager in "Latécoère IS" - Aeronautic Industrial plant with 200 employees. The company manufactures interconnexion systems for Dassault and Airbus. From 2005 to 2009 he was Plant Manager in LATelec at Dassault Aviation. Ollivier managed team of 60 employees responsible for installation of Falcon 7X in Dassault Aviation FAL.

Francois Debergh

Country Director for Bulgaria, Veolia

Recently appointed as Country Director in Bulgaria, Francois Debergh is also in charge since June 2015 of developing the three main business lines of Veolia in the West Balkans region. With his teams, he develops tailor-made services and solutions combining management of water, waste and energy services for both Municipal and Industrial customers with a special focus on innovative and sustainable models to energy efficiency and circular economy. With 18 years of presence in the region, he has also an expertise in D&B projects related to networks infrastructure and water treatment facilities. Mr Debergh holds a degree of Construction & Civil Engineering from HEI (France). VEOLIA is the global leader in optimized resource management. The Group provides Energy, Water and Waste management solutions and helps residents, cities and industries to manage, optimize, develop access to, preserve and replenish resources. Mr. Francois DEBERGH will be lecturer at the Annual Business Forum Industry 4.0, which is organized by Capital on 17 October 2018 in Plovdiv at Grand Hotel Plovdiv. The conference will examine where is Bulgaria in this sea of change, what are Bulgarian companies and industries doing to become part of the new wave. What will this mean for the working force, for the growth and for region development?

Rumen Tsonev

Chief Executive Director, KCM 2000

Huseyin Yorucu

CEO, Alcomet AD

Huseyin Yorucu is born on 3rd of July 1949 in Eskisehir, Republic of Turkey. Graduated at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology and has master degree and PhD in metallurgy. He worked in academia, R&D and in industry. Since 2000 he is in Bulgaria and works as a production manager of Alcomet AD. Since 2001 he is Executive director of the company. From 2007 till the present moment he is a Chairman of the Management board of Alcomet AD.

Krassen Krastev

General Manager, Mecalit Bulgaria

Krassen Krastev is a general manager of Mecalit Bulgaria ltd from 6 years. This is daughter company of Mecalit Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH situated in Lichtenau ,Germany. Mecalit Group is a leading supplier of technical parts for household appliances (as T1) and automotive parts (as T2) for companies like: Bosch,Siemens ,Liebherr ,Miele , BHTC ,Osram etc. Krassen Krastev graduated the German language School in Plovdiv in 1993 and then the University of Economics in Varna in 1999. His professional career is in the field of the industrial production (more specifically -injection molding of plastic parts and technical parts assembling). He has great experience in the green field investments. Had leading role (as general manager or managing director) of several projects for building up new productions in Bulgaria. Next planned green field start up (from May/2019) is a new factory for production of injection molds in Bulgaria in Kuklen. Deeply involved in the problematics of the Bulgarian labor market ,,investment problems ,infrastructure ,all other possible problems related to foreign investments in Bulgaria.

Joanna Kowal

Senior Data Scientist, PwC

Joanna Kowal is a Senior Data Scientist in PwC, based in Warsaw, Poland, with significant experience in solving business problems using data and AI algorithms. Successfully utilizes advanced analytical tools to deliver an end-to-end data-driven solutions for clients from diverse industries (e.g. manufacturing, retail, banking, insurance). She was engaged in a number of data analytics-related project e.g. the implementation of AI-based predictive maintenance solutions and process improvement through data mining in manufacturing sector based on terabytes of sensor data, the development and implementation of an end-to-end price elasticity modelling framework for major retail chain on the top of over 1TB of transactional data, Early Warning System for the CRM department based upon clients' behavioral data to detect in advance indicators of client's disappointing experience as well as an end-to-end KYC process automation solution based upon novel NLP techniques (in particular neural networks). She is a great enthusiast of embedding analytics into the decision and operational processes to create added value. She holds a Master’s degree in Quantitative Methods from Warsaw School of Economics.

Filip Genov

CEO of F27 and Co-founder of Sophia Lab

Filip Genov is a Member of the Advisory Board of the FinTech Summit.
Mr. Genov is a senior banker with 20+ years of executive experience in Bulgaria and numerous other markets, where he initiated and created a wide array of innovations, new business lines, products and companies in the financial services area. His main areas of expertise are strategy, innovations, business development, change and risk management. In 2013 he became the first Eastern European manager to be elected to the Executive Committee of the Factors Chain International, being responsible for the R&D and innovations. In 2003-2006 and in 2012-2014 Filip has been launching and implementing various business development projects and initiatives for UniCredit Group throughout Italy, Germany and the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe. Filip is also an avid supporter, business angel, mentor and investor in startups of young entrepreneurs. He holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and the London School of Economics and an UniCredit Executive master from SDA Bocconi.

Georgi Stoeff

Chairman of the Board, Trakia Tech

Georgi Stoeff is a co-founder of Industry Watch, a strategic consultant of Trakia Economic Zone and a co-creator of the educational program Entrepreneur as a discoverer. He graduated from the University of Leuven, Belgium, and began his professional career in the Institute for Market Economics. Georgi Stoeff is part of the circle of Bulgarian economist, who have been strongly defending tax cuts, pro-market reforms and minimal state intervention in the economy.

Ognyan Georgiev

Editor, Capital

Stylianos Chiotellis

Founder, Factor.E

Stylianos Chiotellis studied mechanical and industrial engineering before diving into researching production planning and control as well as real time information systems at the Technical University of Berlin. It was out of those research activities that Factor.E was born. An innovative production technology startup that rethinks the way factories talk to their machines. As the CEO of Factor.E Stylianos leads a team of 14 data scientists and engineers in the development of FactorE.OS - a new, state-of-the-art digitisation platform for manufacturing.

Veronika Domova

Researcher, ABB Corporate Research

Veronika grew up in Estonia, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in information technology and a Bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Her first job was as a software and UI engineer. After working for several years, she moved to Sweden to obtain a Master’s degree at Royal Institute of Technology. At the end of her studies, she was invited to write a master thesis at ABB Corporate Research (SECRC) located in Västerås, Sweden. This collaboration was very successful and resulted in employment at SECRC for more than six years by now. In SECRC, she works in the field of user experience, where her IT skills and passion for art meet. Several years ago, she started a Ph.D. at Linköping University in the topic of industrial user experience. In her research, she works with the concepts of AI, IoT, big data visualization, augmented and virtual reality. Her main goal is to make the industry a safe, efficient and attractive working place for workers of current and future generations.

Shahin Nabavian

Founder, Centric Mind

Georgi Georgiev

Co-Founder, Giga Automata

Georgi Georgiev is the executive director of the Bulgarian company Föhr Bulgaria, part of the German concern Föhr. He is a co-founder of the developer and manufacturer of robotic systems Giga Automata. Since 2009 he has participated in the creation and successful development of a number of companies. Georgi Georgiev has a PhD in the field of robotics and mechatronics with a specialization from the Royal University in Belfast. He is the creator of numerous innovative developments protected by patents and utility models. He was awarded the Evrika Award for "Inventor of the Year" in 2014.

Ekaterina Mihaylova

Founder and CTO, Sloth.Works

Kirill Andriychuk

Founder, KEY2MARKET

Kirill Andriychuk is a Business Intelligence expert with over 15 years experience in data analytics and BI. He is a founder of Key2Market, a BI consultancy firm with offices in Sofia, Berlin and Ukraine. During the his work in Bulgaria he established the first Data Warehouse for the Paysafe Group and worked with many clients at HP, including General Electric, Vodafone and Motorola. He currently consults Coca Cola, 7NXT, Fnatic on how to leverage data to make smart business decisions and improve company performance.