Retail in Detail 2018

Christian Verschueren

Director-General, EuroCommerce

Christian Verschueren biography Dr. Verschueren has been Director-General of EuroCommerce since July 2011. In this function, he is the chief spokesperson for the retail and wholesale sector. As head of a team of 20 professionals making up the EuroCommerce secretariat, he leads and coordinates major advocacy and communication activities at the EU level. Before joining EuroCommerce, Christian Verschueren led ACE, the alliance for the beverage carton industry. Between 2000 and 2007, he was Director-General of CropLife International, the global federation of the plant science industry. Prior to that, he occupied various management and leadership positions in FEDESA and COMISA (now IFAH– Europe and IFAH), the European and global associations for the veterinary pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Verschueren graduated as doctor of veterinary medicine at the University of Liège, Belgium. He also qualified as veterinarian-specialist in internal medicine and for companion animals. He holds a PhD from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Dr. Verschueren is a guest lecturer at HEC Paris. He is also an ambassador of WWF Belgium, a Board member at Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (Veterinarians without Borders), a development NGO and at Natagora, a nature conservancy organisation.

Kate Maher

Creative Director Consumer Experience, Gensler

Kate Maher is an Irish born, currently working as Creative Director Consumer Experience at Gensler, London.
Kate’s passion for architecture & design began in 2000, working part-time at a Residential & Hospitality property development company in New Jersey, while completing her B.A. in Sports Marketing & International Business as a student-athlete at Sacred Heart University, ultimately going on to complete a Master in Architecture & Design, at NJIT.
From 2010-2014, she returned to Europe to complete her professional practice license at the Royal Institute of Architects, Ireland. During this time, Kate specialized in the design management of retail and hospitality clients, in a fast paced dynamic design environment. Her clients included HMS Host, IHG-Intercontinental Hotel Group, Pernod Ricard, Starbucks, Ferragamo, Omega, the Tate Modern, Selfridges, and Asics.
In 2014 she joined the adidas brand in Germany as Director of Retail Concepts, primarily working on the Originals Flagship concept, as well as leading the design for a new Sportswear Collective concept.In 2016, Kate was appointed the creative lead for all adidas retail concepts, with a focus on Flagships, working with the brands retail and global design teams to ensure that the legacy of adidas retail environment & experience is continued into the future.
A strong advocate of the adidas brand belief "through sport, we have the power to change lives", Kate has translated her passion for basketball into coaching future leaders in Africa. Her coaching has expanded to lending her architecture skills towards volunteer work, designing Kivu International School & Sports Academy, Goma, DRC which opened in 2017, and is being used as a blueprint for a second campus in Lubumbashi DRC.

Marija Milasevic

Consultant, Euromonitor International

Dr. Robert Kecskes

Global Insights Director, Advanced Solutions, GfK

Dr. Robert Kecskes studied sociology, economics, psychology and geography at the University of Hamburg. Fellow of the Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Cologne. Ph.D. (rer. pol.) at the Economic Faculty of the University of Cologne. Twelve years of experience as a lecturer at the University of Cologne. Additional lectures at the College of Public Administration in Hamburg, at the University of Mainz and the University of Prague. Author and editor of several books and articles in the field of social science. 2004-2007 Senior Consultant, Business Development & Media Analyses at A.C. Nielsen. Since 2007 at the GfK Panel Services, Advance Business Solutions. Responsible for marketing research, shopper, target groups, consumption and shopper trends, and media analyses. From May 2012 Senior Insights Director, Head of Strategic Customer Development. Since January 2018 global responsibility for strategic consulting as Global Insights Director. Author of studies on consumer and shopper behavior.

Georgi Malchev

Managing Partner, Xplora

Georgi Malchev is Managing Partner of Xplora.bg - integrated digital marketing agency with slogan Human Digital. It took only 12 months after its creation for the agency to become one of the leading digital marketing agencies in Bulgaria. The company won the pitches for full digital marketing of Toyota, Medix, Easycredit, Primex, and the social media and performance marketing of Microsoft Bulgaria, and 4 more companies. Clients for digital services are Nestle, BLD Homes, Whirlpool, Telus, Shedd and over 30 more companies. Georgi has over 15 years of experience in marketing, communications and business development, as well in operations management - as business consultant, manager, director, COO, board member. Georgi is advisor to several startups, among which TaxiMe, Esceo etc. He has experience as mentor at Eleven and Launchub, and keynote for Founder Institute, Start It Smart, Unistart. Georgi was partner in a startup that was part of Batch 3 of companies, supported and financed by Eleven. Georgi is member to the Board of IAB Bulgaria. He leads the White Paper for Digital Marketing Case Studies. He teaches classes in marketing, advertising and communications at New Bulgarian University. He is moderator and keynote speaker at digital marketing forums and is member to the jury of advertising forums.

Krassimira Raycheva

Manager, Visa Bulgaria

Vasil Vasilev

Director Food Division, Kaufland Bulgaria

Milena Dragijska-Dencheva

CEO Lidl Bulgaria

Milena Dragijska-Dencheva joined Lidl in 2002 as regional sales manager in South Germany. She continued her career working in different positions in Administration and Expansion for Lidl International. She is in charge of the management of Lidl Bulgaria since its establishment in 2005. Milena Dragijska-Dencheva graduated Law at Sofia University, LL.M. in Law from Tuebingen University and MBA International Marketing from The Business School in Reutlingen, both in Germany. Since June 2013 she is a board member of the German-Bulgarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In 2015 she became member of the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria and also a board member in the Association of Modern Trade. In 2 popular annual rankings for the most influential (business) ladies in Bulgaria she got top places - Capital newspaper in 2012 (32nd place) and Forbes in 2015 (Top 20).

Andrey Petrov

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director Expansion and Sales, dm-Bulgaria EOOD

Andrey Petrov heads the management board of dm Bulgaria. He has been part of the company's management team ever since the opening of the company's office on the Bulgarian market in 2008. He's in charge of expansion and heads dm Bulgaria's Sales Department together with Evelina Velikova. Prior to joining the drugstore, he worked in the expansion divisions of Lidl Bulgaria and Plus Bulgaria Trading. He has an MBA from the Higher School of Engineering and Economics in Berlin, Germany. He graduated from the University of Veliko Tarnovo St. Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo and has a BA in Business Administration and Management at the University of Rousse.

Ivan Stoev

Marketing director, Prestige 96

Stoyan Tachev

TQM & Project Management, BILLA Bulgaria

Stoyan Tachev has been working in the food retail business for 13 years now and has gained knowledge and experience in various positions  in international food retail chains in Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Romania and Croatia. He has started working for BILLA Bulgaria in September 2008 and his areas of responsibility are project and process management, strategy and corporate responsibility. Since 2013 he has been appointed as procurator of BILLA Bulgaria. The projects he works on are connected with supply chain, waste management, CSR and sustainability accounting. Based on his idea, the first corporate responsibility report in Bulgarian retailing was developed. The report  was published in February 2016.

Yordan Mateev

CEO, Association for Modern Trade

Yordan Mateev is an economist with more than 20 years experience as a journalist in electronic and print media. He has a Master's degree in Finance from the University of National and World Economy - Sofia. Currently, Jordan is a CEO of the Association for Modern Trade since 2013. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bulgarian Food Bank and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Open Society Institute - Sofia.

Elena Gelemenova

Head of Monetisation, OLX, Shedd for Bulgaria

Elena Gelemenova is the Head of Monetisation of OLX and Shedd for Bulgaria. The company is part of OLX Group - one of the worldwide leaders in online classifieds. Elena has been with OLX for two years and is responsible for some key projects of the company: growing and managing the Telesales team, developing monetisation models and implementing product changes at the platforms. Before joining the OLX team, Elena has worked for pazaruvaj.bg, the online platform for price comparison of different products, where she gained a very useful experience at e-commerce. Elena has a Bachelor degree in Maths and IT sciences. She enjoys making all kinds of cakes and bakes, handmade cards, loves travelling and snowboarding.

Ivan Alexandrov

CEO & Founder, ebag.bg

Ivan Alexandrov has behind his back 8 years experience in marketing and managing businesses. In 2015 he creates the online supermarket ebag.bg in partnership with Fantastico. eBag is the first online supermarket in Bulgaria which has diversity of over 10,000 products and still more to come. All the products are with the same regular prices as the physical supermarkets. For almost a year the project has become the biggest platform for online grocery shopping. Ivan is also Co-Founder of What if - digital creative agency, result driven and passionate about innovations in the fast growing digital world. The key benefits are the outstanding designs and detail-oriented campaigns which are realized in every project. Part of the agency' clients are Vinprom Peshtera, Vereya, Ficosota, Bella and other great brands operating at Bulgarian field and abroad.

Vesela Kalchishkova

Director Consumer Panel Services, GfK Bulgaria

Vesela Kalchishkova has twenty years professional experience in Marketing and Management. Her background includes experience in marketing research, as well as Brand and Marketing management of leading Bulgarian and multinational companies. She is winner of the title Brand manager of the years for 2004. From 2015 Vesela is Director Consumer Panel Services at GfK Bulgaria - a leading marketing research company in the country, offering its clients the full package of marketing and sociological studies. Vesela is consulting leading producers and retailers in the field of the FMCG business using the full set of analysis of the consumer behavior of the Bulgarian households. She holds a Master’s degree in Marketing and Management from University of National and World Economy, Sofia.

Dr. Christian Som

Senior Retail Manager, WWF Switzerland

Dr. Christian Som has been working for WWF for the last 15 years. In his various roles within the organization, he has developed a rich experience in the evaluation and optimization of environmental impacts, in strategy development and in collaborating with the corporate sector. Currently, he is in charge of developing WWF’s International approach to the retail industry. He is also responsible for the content of WWF’s transformational partnerships with one of the World’s most sustainable retailers , Coop Switzerland, and with Lidl Switzerland. Christian Som studied electro engineering at ETH Zurich and holds a MSc in Zoology and Information Technology from the University of Zurich. In addition, he holds a PhD in Behavioural Ecology, also from the University of Zurich. During his studies he specialized in developing models and simulations in the areas of population genetics and population dynamics. After his studies, he worked as a Software Developer and Project Manager at the Swiss consulting company Ernst Basler + Partner. From 2004 to 2010, Christian Som developed tools and guidelines for monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment and strategy for WWF Switzerland and other WWF offices and was responsible for WWF Switzerland’s environmental management system. From 2011 to 2014, Christian Som headed WWF Switzerland’s Climate & Business department. Since 2015 he works as Senior Manager Retail for the organization.

Yani Dragov

CEO, Smart Organic AG

Yani Dragov is the owner of the biggest local company for production, distribution and trade in organic food - Smart Organic, with an assortment of over 1,700 items in a variety of product categories and segments. Through Smart Organic he also owns Roo Brands, which produces Roobar's raw bio-dredgers a the Kookie Cat and Kurabiinica, and the Roobiotic plant probes with energy probes. Under Smart Organic's hat are also the biggest chain of organic shops in Bulgaria - Zelen, the Bett'r snack brand, the superfoods Dragon Superfoods and the main foods Bio-Class. The company exports its own products in nearly 50 markets. Yani Dragov entered the organic food niche in 2009, initially importing and offering products from Germany. He started own production two years later. Previously, Mr. Dragov worked at TBI Asset Management, where he was a portfolio manager.

Laura Vizir

Head of Retail Online Product Development | TBI Bank

With nearly 10 years of experience in banking sector, mainly in credit cards business and consumer financing, Laura is working on developing product strategy and managing B2B relationships in view of business development. She started her career in EFG Eurobank in consumer financing, continued in credit cards product development and today she is involved in developing the Online Retail Solution for TBI Bank, both from product features perspective and platform enhancements.

Silviya Pavlova

Managing Partner, Orenda Group LTD

Sylvia graduated International Business from the American Business School in Paris in 2007. She spend half of her education in the United States, Mexico, China and Hong Kong. In 2004, she won the most prestigious Entrepreneurial Competition in Mexico and thus managed to fund a great deal of hers travels until the end of her studies. Her professional career began at Nestle Pet Care Purina's European headquarters, where she joined the team responsible for logistics and production planning for all the 18 factories across Europe. On her return to Bulgaria, she joined the Global Management Team of one of the largest Bulgarian FMCG companies. In 2014 she decided to create her cosmetic brand "WoodenSpoon". Nearly four years later, the company is selling in over 30 countries, there are 2 production labs and 2 organic production certificates and 3 international quality awards. In her spare time she studies nutritionism, writes books, leads culinary and makes cosmetic workshops.

Kalina Halacheva

Manager, Corte Diletto

Kalina Halacheva is the manager of "Corte Dileto". Established in 2012, the company is a producer of premium foods under the Coppa della Maga brand, Acrobaleno and the newest brand of healthy candies nouri. Prior to creating the company, Kalina worked in the insurance business. She graduated Business Administration in Germany and Executive MBA programme at London Business School and Columbia University, New York.

Veneta Petkova

Official franchise representative for Bulgaria, The Body Shop

Veneta Petkova graduated International Relations at New Bulgarian University (NBU) in 2000.
She worked at the European Institute in 2003. Between 2005 and 2007 she was sales expert at Attica Media Bulgaria. Since 2009 she has been a franchise representative of Textura in Bulgaria - a Catalan brand for home textiles. Since 2011 she is a franchise representative of Imaginarium for Bulgaria - an educational toys store. In 2015 she started representing Duka - a Swedish brand for kitchen accessories. Since 2018 Veneta Petkova is an official franchise representative of the English brand for natural cosmetics The Body Shop.

Maya Marashlian

Anthropologist and intercultural mediator, Head of Insight, BrandWorks, Publicis One

Maya’s 15+ years’ experience spans media, marcom and research. She joined Publicis group in 2006 as a PR practitioner. In the years between 2007 and 2017 she built the media analysis unit at the agency, serving the group’s big multinational clients like Renault, P&G, PMI, Ferrero, etc. In this ten-year period Maya was responsible for developing the unit’s capabilities and expertise in media analysis methodologies, which soon gained its status as Publicis Centre of Excellence for Social Listening. In March 2017 she joined Publicis One strategic unit, BrandWorks, as Head of Insight. In this role she leads consumer understanding in all projects focusing on brand strategy, product or service innovation and business transformation. Maya got her BA in Intercultural Mediation and Far Eastern Studies at Rome’s La Sapienza University. She is in the process of defending her Master’s degree in Cultural and Social Anthropology from New Bulgarian University. Passionate about understanding people, Maya is often out of the office and in the field doing research.

Elena Tosheva

Managing Director, Atera Business Development

Martin Voynov

Digital Marketing Manager, Zagorka

Maya Gerasimova

Sales and Marketing Director, NUHEALTH Jsc

Maya Gerasimova has more than 20 years of experience in the FMCG industry, which she got in Bulgarian, as well as in international companies. She started working in the sphere of sales and marketing in "Bulgarian Rose – Sevtopolis", Kazanlak. Her professional career continued in "Danon", "Nestle" and "Bella Bulgaria". Together with "Bella Bulgaria"’s team she became a Brand Manager of the year 2005 and won three consecutive years the Effie Award for effective companies. Maya Gerasimova was Sales and Marketing Director at "Dimitar Madjarov", as well as Marketing Director at "Devin" – the only Bulgarian brand in the category of FMCG in Top 10 of the prestigious international Superbrands ranking for 2014. Currently Maya Gerasimova works as Sales and Marketing Director at Nuhealth JSC – the company producing the Bulgarian healthy snacks Rice UP! Last year the brand won three world innovation awards for a unique product portfolio and a golden star on FARA competition for the billboard campaign of "Rice UP! EAT SMART" Brand.

Dimitar Dimitrov

Owner and Manager, Ardes.bg

Miroslava Staneva

Marketing Мanager, Nedelya

Genoveva Andreeva and Teodora Buncheva

Managing partners, 121 Agency

Genoveva Andreeva and Teodora Buncheva are managing partners at 121 Agency. Communication professionals with more than 10 years of experience, they've been working for clients like P&G, Monedelez, L'Oreal, Carlsberg, Diageo, Samsung, Microsoft, Vivacom. In 2016 they founded the first experiential marketing agency in Bulgaria. 121 is focused on creating experiences that connect people with brands. Among its clients are leading companies from FMCG, Tech and Automotive sectors.