Vessela Kalacheva is a CEO of the Bulgarian Association for Information Technology /BAIT/. She has graduated from a Mathematics High School, then the Faculty of Communication Technology at the Technical University, Sofia. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication and Security Engineering and Systems. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Mass Communication Management from the New Bulgarian University (NBU). Her professional experience includes Director of the NBU Information Division, Director of BAIT’s Communications. She has been a national coordinator of three consecutive e-Skills for jobs campaigns /2012, 2014, 2015-2016/ as for the campaign in 2012 she was awarded with DIGITALEUROPE’s Special Contribution Award for the highest achievements results from a total of 23 national IT associations involved in the European project. She has been also a national coordinator of Watify’s European project for promoting digital entrepreneurship and leaded establishment of the National Technology Transfer Office at BAIT. She is a member of the jury of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Awards, named after John Atanassov. Vessela is also a member of the juries of the BAIT’s Awards and the Innovation Academy for the Bulgaria Innovation Hackathon.

Dr. Boyko Takov is Executive Director of The Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, appointed by an Order of the Minister of Economy, Mr. Emil Karanikolov, dated November 12, 2018.

Dr. Takov has a proven executive management track record and over 12 years of experience in business management. He spent four years at The Executive Agency „State Property of the Ministry of Defense“, where he served in various expert positions. From 2008 to 2012 he was CEO and member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian subsidiary company of a leading South Korean energy company.

Over the years, he had been at executive and management positions in some of the most advanced areas of business and investment, where project and finance management in agriculture, energy and infrastructure was only part of his biography.

He earned his doctorate in Economics, Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technical University in Sofia and his Master’s degree in Marketing and Economics at the University of National and World Economy, Sofia.

Svetlin Nakov has 20+ years of technical background as software engineer, project manager, consultant, trainer, and digital entrepreneur with rich technical experience (blockchain, Web development, information systems, databases, cryptography, C#, Java, JS, PHP, Python). Svetlin Nakov is a regular speaker at hundreds of conferences, seminars, courses and other trainings and holds a PhD degree in computer science. He is author of 15 books about computer programming and software technologies, lives in Sofia, Bulgaria and works as an passionate trainer and inspirer at SoftUni.

Sinisha is a General Manager at Bosch Software Innovations in Bulgaria. He has been with the company for 20 years and has held various software engineering and management positions. Sinisha has vast experience in product development, presales, consulting and project delivery. He has worked with many customers across the globe in mobile, smart home, automotive and Industry 4.0 domains.

Momchil Elenkov is Telco & B2B Partnership Director for Rakuten Viber. Momchil is responsible for the Viber strategic commercial partnerships with mobile operators on a group level as well as in various markets worldwide. His fields of action also include tech-projects related to AI, Chatbots, B2B, and B2C- communication between corporations and end-users via the Viber-ecosystem. Momchil has a background in two of the leading telecoms in Bulgaria where he managed the mobile products and services and CRM strategies and activities.

Mony Dochev is a serial entrepreneur, avid developer with more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry, master of in-game monetization, tech enthusiast and current CTO of Imperia Online JSC. He has a Master of Science degree in Informatics at Sofia University. In the past decade he has:

•  Co-founded Imperia Online – a Bulgarian game production company with more than 45 million registered users, part of Stillfront Group since 2018.
•  Co-founded Upnetix – one of the largest outsourcing studios for mobile applications in Southeast Europe, part of ScaleFocus since 2018.
•  Co-founded IT Talents – the only academy for free education of developers, that realizes more than 95% of its graduates in 80 partner IT companies.
•  Mentored start-up projects at Launchub and Eleven.
•  Juried Forbes e-awards.
•  Lectured at many conferences and seminars.

Developing digital content, managing websites, setting up banner campaigns, email programmes and digital advertising campaigns for WebGround portfolio of digital brands (Actualno.com, Expert.bg, Sportlive.bg and iWoman.bg) while ensuring consistency across its all brands and channels.

Working collaboratively with content, copywriting, creative, design and development teams to align activities and goals of all marketing collaterals including websites, banners, brochures, newsletters and html emails.

Analysing campaigns and adapting/improving campaigns based on results.

Building and developing partnerships with key titles, associations and key influencers.

Managing Director of an online media, with over 18 years of proven experience in the digital market in Bulgaria.

Previous positions held include commercial director, marketing manager of online media and an international company. She has participated in numerous projects from start to completion, has experience in publishing, organizing events, etc.

Holds a degree from the University of National and World Economy, London School of PR and certificates from other professional courses.

Believes in personal attitude, always being patient and committed to everything she undertakes.

Very fond of family and friendship. Has a son in 3rd grade.

Ned Dervenkov is Vice-chairman of Board at BESCO – the Bulgarian Startup Association. Ned has been involved in the Bulgarian startup community for quite some years now, has launched his own startups, failed and launched again. Besides BESCO, Ned is also involved in a proptech business.