Speakers – Sofia CyberSec 2022

SOFIA CYBER SEC SPEAKERS

Gergana Passy

Gergana Passy is the Digital Champion of Bulgaria (since 2012). Founding President of the Digital National Alliance and the president of the oldest PanEuropean movement in United Europe – PanEuropa Bulgaria.

Norbert Beckmann-Dierkes

Director, Sofia Office of Konrad. Adenauer Foundation

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is a political foundation active throughout Germany and abroad. Freedom, justice and solidarity are the guiding principles of the Foundation.

David van Weel

NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges

David vad Weel is the Secretary General’s primary advisor on emerging security challenges and their implications for the security of the Alliance and a member of the Secretary General’s senior management team.

Velizar Shalamanov

Dr Shalamanov is the current Chairperson of the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency Supervisory Board (ASB). The ASB reports directly to the North Atlantic Council and is responsible for the organizational governance of the NCI Agency.

Adm. Emil Eftimov

Chief of Defence

Admiral Emil Eftimov is the principal head of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The chief is appointed by the President of Bulgaria, who is the commander-in-chief.

Prof. Georgi Todorov

Acting Minister for e-Governance of Bulgaria

Georgi Todorov has many years of expert and management experience, he was responsible for both the “Information Technologies and Communications” sector and the “Transport” sector, as well as the digitization process

Bojidar Bozhanov

The First (former) Minister of E-Governance of Bulgaria

Mr Bozhanov is one of the most prominent advocates for digitalising administrative services in Bulgaria.

Vladimir Dimitrov

Head of Bulgarian CyberCrime Unit, Ministry of Interior

Vladimir Dimitrov has participated in dozens of specialized police operations to counter a wide range of computer and computer-related crimes at home and abroad.

Ifigeneia Lella

ENISA Cyber Security Officer

Ifigeneia Lella has been in charge of EU wide cyber exercises such as Cyber Europe 2018 and is currently engaged in the preparation of the 2022 edition of the event. She has been responsible for the Threat Landscape project since 2021

Teodor Panayotov

CEO of Coursedot

Teodor has extensive background in IT being a Business Development Manager at Fast Lane. He was also the youngest Certified Cisco Systems Instructor in Europe at the time of his certification.

Fouad Bitar

Senior Industry Advisor, Sustainable & Digital Industries Division at European Investment Bank

Vihren Slavchev

Mnemonica, CEO

Vihren himself is an expert in the field of cyber defence in medical institutions, data storage methods, and the damage from frequent threats.

Liubomir Tulev

Director Managed Security Services at DIGITALL

Tulev is an international entrepreneur and influencer in Cyber Security with a dozen of information security certificates. He is a regular speaker at Cyber Security Conferences and Law Enforcement organizations such as Europol and Interpol.

Anton Puliiski

ETIC - Emerging Technologies Integration Cluster and United Drone Community

Anton Puliiski is a Lawyer with 13 years of experience in the field of emerging technologies, information security and aviation. The last few years he has been dealing with the development of the drone society in Bulgaria.

Peter Kirkov

Director Network and Information Security at Ministry of E-Governance

Head of Bulgarian National Computer Security Incident Response Team (CERT-BG). He works in Data privacy, IT security and IT Governance and his background is in network and system security technologies such as firewalls,

Pavel Georgiev

Cyber Security Talks Bulgaria

Pavel Georgiev is an Experienced Information Technology Supervisor with a demonstrated history of working in the retail industry.

Yasen Tanev

Cyber Security Expert at DNA

Yasen Tanev is an information analysator, lead expert at the Bulgarian Industrial Association on problems of information security and fiscalization. Tanev is one of the creators of the civil initiative “information transparency”.

Boris Simandoff

DEV BG / Informational Transparency Initiative

Miglen Evlogiev

Defense Institute (EDF Cyber project)

Antoinette Nikolova

Reporter at EURACTIV

Pavel Ivanov

Executive Director at IPA

Miroslav Yanev

Еxpert on Social Media and Disinformation

Dominic Gingras

Founder of The Good Phone Foundation

Dominic has over 20 years of experience leading organizations focused on cybersecurity, personal privacy, and technology development. He is responsible for ensuring the technology programs leverage innovation in a responsible and sustainable way.

Mark Nelson

Member of Facebook Advisory Group, Senior Director at National Endowment for Democracy (2013-2021)

Ivelina Dundakova

Head of the Bulgarian Unit for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Interior

Elena Poptodorova

Ambassador, Vice President, Board member of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria

Elena Poptodorova is an experienced Ambassador with a demonstrated history of accomplishments in the spheres of International Affairs and Negotiations, Public Policy, Energy and Security, and International Investment

Rosen Plevneliev

President of Bulgaria (2012-2017)

Mr. Plevneliev was the 4th President of Bulgaria, holding the position from January 2012 to January 2017. He was the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works from July 2009 to September 2011 as part of the cabinet of Boyko Borisov.

Kira Rudyk

MP, People's Deputy of Ukraine

Kira Rudyk consistently advocates for Ukraine’s integration into the European Union and NATO. Before starting her political career, she built a successful career in the Ukrainian and American IT industries

Maxim Behar

Public Relations expert, CEO and Chairman of the Board of M3 Communications Group

Maxim Behar is a globally renowned PR professional, entrepreneur, diplomat, and media expert. He is the founder (in 1994), CEO and Chairman of the Board of one of the leaders of the Bulgarian PR market: M3 Communications Group, Inc.

Jessikka Aro

an award winning journalist and writer of, Putin’s Trolls

Aro saw the actions of Kremlin-connected internet trolls as “a threat to Finnish people’s freedom of speech” telling Deutsche Welle (DW) she “was really astonished to find out that it’s quite big—super big actually.

AI & I SPEAKERS

Gergana Passy

Dr. Svetlin Penkov

Co-founder & CEO - Efemarai, AI Cluster Bulgaria

Dr Svetlin Penkov is the Co-founder and CEO of Efemarai and is part of the managing board at the AI Cluster Bulgaria. He works at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

Kristina Eskenazi

Chairwoman of a Managing Board of Bulgarian Health & Life Science Cluster, Co-founder and member of a board of Bulgarian Bioscience Society, AI Cluster Bulgaria and BRAIT

Kristina Eskenazi is an experienced Public Relations Manager. She is a strong media and communication professional skilled in Crisis Management, Investor Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crisis Communications, and CRM.

Ivelina Lambova

Managing Director at SeeNews

Experienced manager in Management, Sales and Account Management. Experiences in Business Development and implementation of international projects

Teodor Radonov

Head of the EIB Regional Office in Bulgaria

Radonov is a structured finance specialist with over 8 years of previous experience working for the European Investment Fund (EIF), dealing with securitization and guarantee products, covering a wide range of jurisdictions inside and outside the EU.

Vasil Shivachev

COO of Identrics

Vasil has 15 years of experience in information technologies and services, having worked as a DevOps Engineer and managing a computer retail chain. At Identrics, he uses his experience to help companies better understand the meaning behind data.

Dr. Monika Manolova

AI Ethics expert at Digital National Alliance

Manolova is an experienced Geographic Information System Expert with a demonstrated history of working in the management consulting industry. An information technology professional with a Ph.D. focused in Geographic Information Science and Cartography.

Alison B Lowndes

Senior Scientist, Global AI | NVIDIA

A mature graduate in Artificial Intelligence combining technical and theoretical computer science with an astrophysics background & over 25 years of experience in international project management, entrepreneurial activities and the internet.

Dr. George Dimitrov

Founder and Senior Expert of Law and Internet Foundation

Prof. Dr. Dimitrov has been the leading expert and head of numerous work groups that have drafted the contemporary Bulgarian legislation in the area of ICT.

Iliya Lingorski

Member of the Bulgarian National Bank's Governing Council

Iliya Lingorski has more than 25 years of experience in both the public and the private financial sector, and in the academic field. He was an IMF Alternate Governor for Bulgaria.

Richard Foster-Fletcher

Morality and Knowledge AI (MKAI) “AI Ethics and Inclusion”

An experienced speaker, Richard is known for his engaging and interactive style. He shares the power and risks of artificial intelligence and how we can design a digital future that works for all of us.

Prof. Dimitar Nikolov

Prof. Electronic Engineering and Technologies at TU Sofia

DataLab helps companies and organizations to unlock the value of huge amount of data, define use cases and address their big data challenges

Emil Shekerdzhiiski

Founder at NETWORKING Premium Coworking

Georgi Kadrev

Co-founder & CEO at Kelvin Health

He is a Pioneer in the area of image recognition platforms as a service and thermography AI.

Ivan Tsenov

Head of AI at Anthill, CTO at EPIX.AI

Tsenov is currently the Head of AI at the Bulgarian outsourcing startup Anthill, as well as cofounder and CTO at EPIX.AI – a company which aims to use artificial intelligence and epigenetics to determine people’s long-term risk of diabetes and other age-related diseases.

Ivan Angelinin

Technical Director, Cosmos Trace

Simeon Lukov

CEO, Dynamic Pricing

Daniel Angelov

CTO, Efemerai

Daniel Shopov

Business Development Director, Barin Sports JSC

He is a Pioneer in the area of image recognition platforms as a service and thermography AI.

Dimitar Dimitrov

Micar21

Kavya Pearlman

XRSI Founder “The Future and the Risks of the Metaverse”

Well known as the “Cyber Guardian”, Kavya Pearlman is an Award-winning cybersecurity professional with a deep interest in immersive and emerging technologies.

Dr. Teodora Varbanova

Sofia University "St.Kliment Ohridski"

Dimitrina Todorova

Head of the High School of Computer Programming and Innovation in Burgas

Prof. Georgi Todorov

Technical University Sofia - Bachelor's degree "Intelligent Systems and Artificial Intelligence"

Maxim Kolev is a Business development executive with over 14 years experience in sales and management at all hierarchy levels. CMI qualified as well as Executive MBA, MA in Financial Management and BA in Insurance and Social policy.