Mr. Houlin Zhao, Secretary General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Houlin Zhao was elected ITU Secretary-General at the 19TH Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea, in October 2014. He took up his post on 1 January, 2015. Prior to his election, he served two terms of office as ITU Deputy Secretary-General (2007-2014), as well as two terms as elected Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (1999-2006).
A graduate of China's Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, with an MSc from the UK's University of Essex, Mr Zhao has spent most of his career working in the international arena. His leadership has been characterized by a tireless commitment to further streamlining ITU's efficiency and enhancing strategic partnership between Member States and Sector Members. He has boosted ITU's level of international cooperation with other international organizations, and is dedicated to harnessing technology to bridge the gap between developing and developed countries. As Secretary-General, Mr Zhao is committed to further extending ITU's community to include academia from around the world, as well as promoting the greater involvement of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the work of the Union. He is married with one son and two grandchildren, and is fluent in three official ITU languages: English, French and Chinese.
H.E. Ms Iliana Iotova, Vice-President, Republic of Bulgaria
Iliana Iotova was born on 24 October 1964. She graduated Bulgarian and French philology at Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski." She specialized at the National School of Administration (ENA- École nationale d'administration) in France and the Center for European Studies (Centre des Etudes Européennes de Strasbourg) in Strasbourg. She worked as a reporter, editor, news presenter and Head of the News Directorate at Bulgarian National Television (1990- 1997). She was Director of the press service of the National Council of the BSP (1997-2007). She was Assembly Deputy in the 40th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria (2005-2007). She has been Chair of the Bulgarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of La Francophonie and Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). She became a Member of the European Parliament from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in June 2007. She was member of the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) during her first mandate as MEP (2007-2009). During her second mandate as MEP Iliana Iotova was Deputy-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering (CRIM); she was Deputy-chair of the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Association Committee; she was member of the European Parliament's Committee on Fisheries (PECH), of the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions (PETI), of a Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, deputy-member of the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL), member of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), and of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union (DMAG). During this mandate Mrs. Iotova became author of the European Parliament's first report on the Black Sea and fishery in it. During her third mandate in the European Parliament (2014-2017) Iliana Iotova was elected deputy-chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and for deputy-member of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development (REGI). Mrs. Iotova was deputy-member of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality. Iliana Iotova was deputy-chair of the European Parliament's Delegation to the EU – Montenegro Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee, and also member of the European Parliament's Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly Union for the Mediterranean . The basic priorities and topics she has been working on include: fighting terrorism, personal data protection, the refugee crisis, Bulgaria's membership in the Schengen area. She is author of reports and proposals in the European legislation on tackling the migration crisis. In the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development she was author of the first European Parliament report on the policy of cohesion of mountainous regions in the EU. She was member of the Supreme Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (2000 - 2016). She was elected Deputy Chair of the BSP Sofia City Council in January 2006, a position she held until 2012. Iliana Iotova was elected for member of the Executive Bureau of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 2012 and was its member until 2016. She is fluent in French. She has good command of Russian and English. She is married and has one son.
Ms. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner, Digital Economy and Society, European Commission
Mr. George Alexandrov, Managing Director, Oracle Bulgaria
Georgi Alexandrov has been the Managing Director of “Oracle Bulgaria” for three years. He has nine years of experience in the company, in the trade department, and has also held the position of Sales Director. He has over 15 years of experience in Information and Communication Technology.
Ms. Sasha Bezuhanova, Founder and Chairperson, The Bulgarian Centre of Women in Technology (BCWT), Founder and Chairperson at MOVE.BG
Sasha Bezuhanova is a senior executive, angel investor and philanthropist with a 20-years executive business career in HP and a multi-dimensional track record of service to society. Her long list of business achievements and social development engagements throughout the years involve positioning Bulgaria as an ICT center of global significance, boosting the entrepreneurial culture and women empowerment in her home country Bulgaria and at European level. In 2013 she left her business career and devoted herself to supporting social prosperity trough innovation, education and collaboration. Sasha is the founder of MOVE.BG - non-partisan platform for collaboration in finding sustainable solutions for the state, economy and society via innovation, participation and co-creation and the initiator of EDIT.BG – open network initiative for digital innovation. Sasha is Chair of the Boards of Bulgarian Center of Women in Technologies, Technical University, co-founder and board member of the Initiative for Social Empowerment and Honorary Board member of Junior Achievement Bulgaria where she served as Board Chair for fifteen years. In 2013 she founded the yearly Entrepregirl Award for supporting young women to develop their entrepreneurial ideas into business. Sasha was named Digital woman of Europe for 2013 and one of the Top 100 Challengers in New Europe 100 for 2015. Sasha Bezuhanova holds an Executive Master’s Degree in International Negotiations and Policy Making from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Master's Degree in Electronics from the Technical University of Sofia, and Executive qualifications from INSEAD, Stanford and others.
Prof. Ivan Dimov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science
Prof. Dimov is an authoritative scientist, immediate past Chair of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Information and Communications Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He is Head of the Parallel Algorithms Section at the Academy. Prof. Dimov is best known for his development of mathematical models in the field of environment and climate change, as well as for his methods of financial mathematics, or so-called Monte Carlo numerical methods.
In the period from 2005 to 2007, he has successfully served as a lecturer at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, School of Systems Engineering, ACET Center. From 1996 to 2004, he held the position of Director of the Institute of Information and Communications Technologies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
He has published two monographs in Elsevier (2006) and World Scientific (2009), editor of 8 international scientific journals, published by Springer-Verlag, World Scientific, and Elsevier. He has published 135 articles in peer-reviewed international scientific journals, of which 83 in international journals. He has participated in the development of European projects for the creation of centers of excellence and is an international evaluator of NATO projects. He completed his higher education at the National Research University, Moscow, with master's degree in Electronic Engineering.
Ms. Nelly Ilieva, Account Executive, Dell EMC Bulgaria
Nelly Ilieva is a Sales Director of Dell EMC Bulgaria. Before joining Dell EMC, Nelly Ilieva has experience working in Public, IT and Telecommunication sectors at local and regional management and sales roles. She was covering IT line of business in 26 countries in CEE. Nelly Ilieva holds a master degree in International Business Relations, Marketing and Management. Nelly Ilieva has more than 20 years’ experience in ICT and telecommunication technologies. She is member of the Board of Directors of BCWT.
Ms. Monika Kovachka-Dimitrova, Chief Project Manager, CSR Lead and member of the Leadership team, SAP Labs Bulgaria
Monika has over 17 years of experience in software development, working in different roles. Her career started as a developer, she was team lead and project lead of various projects, as well as manager and Vice President in SAP. Monika is a Design Thinking and business coach, who likes to work with people and help them find the best way to develop their work skills and knowledge to get better and better results.
Milena Krumova, PhD, Founder and Manager, EduTechFlag Ltd.
Milena possesses more than 15 years of progressive experience in the field of education. Since 2011, she holds Ph.D. in Economics (Economics and Management), since 2014 she holds Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Automation from the Technical University - Sofia, Faculty of Electronic Engineering and Technologies, in the field of Competency-Based Education and Innovative Technologies and Tools for Teaching & Learning and web 2.0. She has been participated in many research projects and has been published more than 50 scientific paper as an author and co-author. She is a committee member of International Conference on Information and Software Technologies Proceedings published by Springer and member of Bulgarian Centre of Women in Technology. Since 2013 - 2017, she is a volunteer to coordinate for Bulgaria and lead in Sofia the world biggest Hackathon NASA International Space Apps Challenge. As a manager of EduTechFlag Ltd. Milena is the organizer of one of the most innovative events in Bulgaria – Music Hackathons Bulgaria. the national contest for STEM sciences in Schools (K12) SUPER STEM and Sports Hackathons Bulgaria. During the last 5 years, more than 2000 students at TU-Sofia have participated in an innovative learning scenario 2.0 model with the use of interactive media tools and applications (Learning 2.0), where she is a lecturer. In 2016, she has been chosen to be Bulgarian educator to participate at Space Camp NASA center at Huntsville, Alabama, USA. Since 2017, Milena is a Member of Chair Staff at UNESCO department at the State University of Library Studies and Information Technologies. During her professional career, Milena has been participated in a lot of scientific projects and events and have been visited many leading universities to share and exchange knowledge – CTG at the State University New York, Buskerud and Vestfold University College, University of Queensland, Sydney University, Krems University, Oslo University, Melbourne University, Knowledge Media Research Center at University of Tübingen, Technical University – Delft, and many other.
Mr. Andrey Novakov, Member of European Parliament
Mr Novakov is the youngest Member of the European Parliament and one of the youngest in the history of this institution. His work is concentrated in 4 priorities: EU funding instruments and simplification of EU funding; European Fund for Strategic Investments; youth employment (Youth Guarantee); EU Budget and Budgetary control. He is the initiator and creator of the programme for youth entrepreneurship.
Jaroslaw Ponder, Head of the ITU Office for Europe
Mr Ponder is Head of the ITU Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Geneva, Switzerland). Within the last years Mr. Ponder has been carrying out numerous projects, activities and initiatives at national, regional and international levels. He has been taking lead role in many international conferences and summits dealing with development of ICT ecosystem, information society, and advancements of digital economy worldwide, while setting strategies and ensuring their timely implementation. Along the professional career Mr. Ponder held official positions in the public sector and was a contributor to the legislative projects having impact on the public policy. Since 2004 Mr. Ponder has been working for ITU. In 2004 he was consultant at the Market, Economics and Finance Unit (MEF/ITU). In year 2005 he moved to Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU/ITU). In year 2007 he moved to Project and Initiatives Department (PRI/ITU). In year 2008 upon his former duties he acted as Europe Officer (EUR/ITU) as well as as Project Manager for European Centres of Excellence Network (CoE-EUR). In August 2008 he was appointed as Coordinator for Europe. After successfull recreation of the coordination for the region in February 2009 he moved to the General Secretariat becoming Strategy and Policy Coordinator and one year later Senior Strategy and Policy Advisor with the objective to lead the ITU activities on World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and its 10 year review, amongst the others successfully establishing WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, and organizing WSIS+10 High Level Event (2014) that resulted in negotiated texts. In parallel, since October 2011 he has been working as Coordinator for Europe strengthening coordination and implementation mechanism. In July 2017 he became a Head of ITU Office for Europe, directing actions, projects, initiatives and experts groups targeting 43 countries.
Ms. Tayra Ridvaeva, Young Girls in ICT Role Model
Tayra is 9 years old and was born and lives in Sofia. She studies in the Privite German School "Weda" and loves painting. At the age of 6, her work was awarded in the CEZ Children's Drawing Competition "I WANT TO HELP TO ...", among a total of 138 works. Besides the gift of learning foreign languages (at the age of 8 she speaks some German, English, Chinese and Turkish), Tayra has another talent in the field of modern computer technologies. At the age of 8 Tayra participated in the IT Znayko award contest and won a prize for an original idea and, as a member of the Coder Dojo club, won an award from the Bulgarian version of CoderDojo Coolest Projects.
The great victory comes in Dublin, Ireland, at the international competition involving more than 1,000 children from 17 countries. At the age of 9, on 25.03.2018 she won an special prize from the Sofuniada Kids (organized by Software University in Sofia, Bulgaria) with an amazing project.
Ms. Zornitsa Rusinova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy
In her capacity of deputy minister of labour and social policy Zornitsa Rusinova is responsible for the EU Funds, international programmes and projects, international cooperation, coordination of EU-related issues and the preparation of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. She oversees and coordinates the work of Directorate General "European Affairs and International Cooperation". Zornitsa Rusinova served as minister of labour and social policy from May 2016 to January 2017. She held the position of deputy minister of labour and social policy in the periods March 2012 – March 2013 and November 2014 – January 2016. She was in charge of the labour market policy, the international relations, labour and social law, incomes and demographic policies and the international and European funding programmes. Ms. Rusinova supervised the Employment Agency, the Managing Authority of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme and the Beautiful Bulgaria Project. Zornitsa Rusinova has ample experience in programme and project management which she acquired while working for the UN Development Programme, the US Agency for International Development and the Bulgarian – Swiss Cooperation Programme. She holds a masters degree in international economic relations from the University for National and World Economy and masters degrees in Bulgarian and English from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". She is fluent in English and Russian.
Prof. D.Sc. Statty Vasilev Stattev, Rector of the University of National and World Economy
Prof. Dr. Kamelia Georgieva Stefanova, Dean of Faculty of Applied Informatics and Statistics, University of National and World Economy
Professor Kamelia Stefanova, is the Dean of Faculty “Applied Informatics and Statistics” and Head of ITC Department at University of National and World Economy. She is a leading lecturer in Informatics, Management Information Systems and Business Intelligence for Bachelor and Master students, and a Supervisor of PhD students in these fields. All her life has been linked with ICT – graduating a High School in Mathematics with focus on Computer Science, then Business Informatics at UNWE, then PhD in Information Systems Design and then till now always involved in ICT education and research projects. Prof. Stefanova has been actively participated in Development of European and National ICT research projects. She was a Local coordinator, Project Manager and Consultant in more than 20 projects. The main publications of Prof. Stefanova are in the fields of Business Intelligent Systems, Management Information Systems, Future Internet, Big Data, eGovernance, eBusiness, Integrated Solutions and Collaborative Platforms Development that are about 100 for the last 10 years.
Membership in professional organisations:
- Member of the International Federation of Automatic Control IFAC Technical Committee 5.3 (Enterprise Integration and Networking)
- Member of the Centre for Business Information, Organisation and Process Management, University of Westminster, UK
- Committee Member of the Academic Conferences International, UK
