Sixth Annual Conference Banks & The Business

Kalin Hristov

Deputy Governor, Bulgarian National Bank

Kalin Hristov is Deputy Governor in charge of the Issue Department and member of the Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank from 23 October 2009. He is elected by the 43rd National Assembly on 29 July 2015 for a second six-year term of office, starting from 24 October 2015.

Peter Andronov

Chairman of the Country Team of KBC Group for Bulgaria, Country Manager of KBC Group for Bulgaria, Chairman of the Management Board of UBB, CEO of UBB

Peter Andronov was appointed Executive Director of CIBANK in July 2007. In March 2008 hе became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and since March 2011 he has been Country Manager of KBC Group for Bulgaria. Аfter the acquisition of UBB by the Belgian bancassurance group KBC Group, Peter Andronov was appointed Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board of UBB. Since 2008 he has also been a member of the Management Board of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria and its representative in the Banking Supervision Committee at the European Banking Federation. Since May 2015 he has been apponted Chairman of the Executive Board of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria (ABB). Before his appointment in CIBANK, Mr. Andronov held a number of positions in the private banking sector and in the Bulgarian National Bank. From 2002 until May 2007 he headed the Banking Supervision Department at the BNB. From 2003 until May 2007 he was a member of the Management Board of the Reserve Guarantee Fund. Mr. Andronov is also a member of the BNB’s Investment Committee. During the period 2005 – 2007 he was an observer and member of the European Banking Committee (EBC) and the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) at the European Commission. During the same period he was an observer and member of the Banking Supervision Committee (BSC) at the European Central Bank. Mr. Andronov has been involved in the elaboration of the currently effective legislation framework on bank supervision in Bulgaria, incl. the Credit Institutions’ Act, the Supplementary Supervision of Financial Conglomerates Act, the BNB’s supervisory ordinances, instructions etc. Peter Andronov has a Master’s degree in Finance and Banking from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia (UNWE). Since 1995 he has lectured on Introduction to Finance and Banking Regulation at the UNWE, at the Higher School of Insurance and Finance and at the New Bulgarian University /International Banking Institute. He is fluent in English, German and Russian.

Levon Hampartzoumian

CEO and Chairman of the MB of UniCredit Bulbank, Member of the Board of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria

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. In 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.

Petia Dimitrova

Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Management Board of Postbank

Petia Dimitrova is CEO and Chairperson of the MB of Postbank (under the legal name Eurobank Bulgaria AD). She joined the team of Postbank in 2003 as Country CFO for the eight affiliated companies of Eurobank EFG Group in Bulgaria. In 2005 was appointed Procurator of the Bank. In 2007 she was appointed Executive Director and Member of the MB of DZI Bank. After the legal merger of DZI Bank and Postbank she became Executive Director and Member of MB of the unified bank. In 2012, she became CEO and Chairperson of the MB of Postbank. Under her leadership, in 2016 Postbank acquired and integrated for a record time the operations of Alpha Bank - Bulgaria Branch. Petia Dimitrova is a Member of the Management Boards of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria, "Atanas Bourov" Foundation, "Borica" AD, Endeavor Bulgaria Association, the International Banking Institute, the University Council of the American University in Bulgaria, as well as Member of the Industrial Advisory Board - CITY College, International Faculty of the University of Sheffield. She also is a Member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), Member of the Young Global Leaders Forum, part of the World Economic Forum, Member of the Gerson Lehrman Group Accounting Council London, UK, Fellow Member of the Chartered Management Institute, UK and Cofounder of the Public Council of Women in Business. Petia Dimitrova is a chartered accountant, qualified ACCA member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in London, UK. Petia Dimitrova has an Executive MBA in General Management from the University of Sheffield, UK and holds two Master Degrees in Finance and Banking and Tourism from the University of National and World Economy and Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. She also holds other international diplomas and certificates. Petia Dimitrova is a winner of many awards and recognitions.

Miroslav Vichev

CEO, BORICA

Miroslav Vichev is a Chief Executive Officer of the payment and card operator BORICA. He has over 25 years of experience in the field of information technology for the banking sector. Before joining the company, he held a number of leadership positions - Head of "Applied Systems" at the Bulgarian Postbank, Director "Management Consulting and IT" at Deloitte & Touche, Head of "Consulting Department" at Microsoft Bulgaria and a consultant to the BNB in relation to the RINGS system, IT Director at HVB Bank Biochim, CEO of DSK Bank. He was also a member of the Supervisory Board of the "DSK Rodina" pension company, member of the Board of Directors of the "Cash Service Company AD" and a member of the Board of Directors of OTP Bank (Russia), Deputy of the CEO of OTP Bank (Hungary) and Chief Information Manager of the banking group. Mr. Vichev is a former graduate of the Technical University of Sofia.

Georgi Zamanov

CEO, Allianz Bank Bulgaria

Martin Danovsky

Chairman of the Management Board of Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria

Martin Danovsky is the Chairman of the Management Board of "Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria" EAD from 10th November 2016. He joined the "Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria" EAD as Member of Management Board in 22nd October 2015. Mr. Danovsky represents a profile of a contemporary management professional with 20 years of integrated experience in business economics, marketing and institutional affairs with extended focus on EU funds, programmes and instruments. He is an economic policy advisor in the cabinet of the Deputy Prime-Minister Tomislav Donchev since 2015. He has run multinational marketing group Havas Worldwide for the Balkan’s region and has consulted a wide range of businesses from the financial and IT sector, to corporate blue-chips and Bulgarian SMEs. Martin Danovsky holds two master degrees – in Economics, Strategic planning and Marketing from University of National and World Economy, Sofia, and in technical sciences/engineering in Land Management, University of Architecture and Civil engineering.

Petr Baron

CEO, TBIF (TBI Bank), Member of ExCo, 4finance

A dynamic and result-oriented executive, Petr Baron has extensive experience in retail banking with focus on digital transformation and business evolution. An expert in developing strategic lending initiatives, maintaining a reputation built on quality, service, and uncompromising ethics. Petr Baron started from leading advisory and investment roles and for over 16 years of his professional career held multiple board roles in multinational and local companies in the UK, Russia, Macedonia and later in Ukraine, where he held positions of CEO of VAB Bank and VAB Group, member of TBIF Financial Services B.V. (TBIF), having managed to transform corporate identity and create the first Ukrainian financial supermarket in retail financial services. From 2012 he held the post of Vice President Strategy for TBIF, being an advisor to the Managing Director on the group’s banking and non-bank operations across CEE, moving on to assisting 4finance Group S.A. in developing its banking strategy and acquisition targets. From 2016 Peter Baron is the Managing Director TBIF, while recently he was appointed as a Member of the Executive Committee of 4finance Group S.A. Petr has a BSc in Investment and Financial Risk Management from the Cass Business School, UK.

Filip Genov

Founder and Managing Partner, 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.

Bernardo Ghilardi

Head of Strategy Coordination & Product Development, European Investment Fund

Bernardo heads the Strategy Coordination & Product Development Division within the Equity Investments and Guarantees Directorate of the European Investment Fund (EIF). In such function he is, amongst others, responsible for the assessment and development of EIF’s products and mandates from a marketability standpoint. Bernardo joined the EIF in 2010 where he has held different functions. Before the current role, he was Deputy Head of the Regional Mandates Division responsible for the implementation of initiatives such as JEREMIE and the SME Initiative, and Senior Credit Risk Manager. Prior to joining EIF, Bernardo worked in the debt capital markets industry, as proprietary trading investor, rating agency analyst and structurer of securitisation transactions across Europe and North America.

Goran Angelov

Founder and CEO, IBS Bulgaria

Goran Angelov is a founder and CEO of IBS Bulgaria (IBS) one of the leading IT companies in the country with a focus on finance industry, analytics solutions and systems integration. Nowadays IBS is involved in key project for leading banks related to digital transformation, PSD2 regulation, infrastructure modernisation and information assets management.
Goran Angelov has an engineer degree in process automation. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of information and communication technologies and has participated in a number of successfully implemented large-scale IT projects for the business and the public sector.

Dobromir Dobrev

Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and Executive Director Corporate Banking and Capital Markets, Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria

Dobromir Dobrev is Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and Executive Director of Corporate Banking and Capital Markets in Raiffeisenbank. He has been working at the Raiffeisen Group in Bulgaria since 2003 as a Relationship Manager in the Corporate banking segment. In the period 2005 - 2006 he was Head of Corporate Banking, Middle Market. Since 2006 he has been CEO and Managing Director of Raiffeisen Leasing Bulgaria OOD. Dobromir Dobrev has been member of Raiffeisenbank’s Management Board since February 2013. Dobromir Dobrev has a master’s degree from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of "St. Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia. Mr. Dobrev is fluent in English and German. He is married and has one child.

Georgios Christoforou

CEO at B2Kapital SA-Greece & Regional Director for South Eastern Europe at B2Holding

Finance professional with a large tenure as an insolvency practitioner. Gathered an all-around operational and financial restructuring experience during the last 17 years and has managed several Corporate Finance and Turnaround projects while being a Senior Manager of Kantor Management Consultants CFA team. Possesses deep understanding of the Banking industry having served for almost 2 years as Sanctioning Manager in Greece and for almost 7 years as CEO for Bank of Cyprus in Romania. Following his tenure in the banking system, he acquired solid experience in Portfolio Reviews and participated as Advisor in the sale tenders for material portfolios in Greece and Romania. In parallel he advised certain Banks during the Asset Quality Review project of the four systemic institutions in Greece (ECB stress test), while subsequently managed the Loans Portfolio Review of the Cooperative Banks of Greece. Recently he led the portfolios recoveries in the Greek Special liquidation entity as a General Manager. He holds BSc and MSc from City University and MBA from London Business School.

Kalin Radev

CEO, Software Group, FinTech Summit Advisory Board Member

Kalin brings more than 20 years of professional experience in IT, over 15 of which in financial inclusion, banking and microfinance. He has extensive international experience leading strategic projects in Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific and Latin America. His expertise has been crucial for carrying out more than 100 projects around the globe, focused on developing IT strategies and designing solutions that accelerate financial inclusion and enhance efficiency. Kalin is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Microfinance Center (MFC), Endeavor Bulgaria, and the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber.

Ilko Stoyanov

Managing Partner, Schoenherr Bulgaria

Ilko Stoyanov is a local partner of Schoenherr in Sofia, where he specialises in Corporate, M&A and Competition Law. Ilko has graduated in law from the Sofia University and has an LL.M. degree from the Columbia Law School. Ilko regularly acts for clients on multinational acquisitions and corporate restructurings in the telecom, technology, insurance, manufacturing and energy industries. Ilko is speaker on conferences regarding foreign investments and author of publications in the field of the mergers and acquisitions in Bulgaria (The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Mergers & Acquisition (Global Legal Group, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011).

Lyubomir Punchev

Executive Director, Member of the Board of Directors and Member of the Executive Committee, Piraeus Bank Bulgaria

Mr. Punchev has over 20 years of experience in the banking sector. He started his career in 1993 in Bulbank as an Economist in Documentary Operations Dept., later became a Liquidity Manager in Treasury Dept. and a Branch Manager. He has a Masters degree in International Economic Relations and TRIUM Global EMBA (London School of Economics, London, HEC, Paris, New York University, Stern School of Business). In 2001 he was promoted to a Head of Retail Banking in UniCredit Bulbank and managed the Retail Business till 2010, also was a Member of the Management Board. In January 2011 he became the Head of Sales, in CEE Retail in Bank Austria, UCG. He continued his international career as the Head of Retail Division and Member of the MB of Ukrsotsbank, Ukraine, member of UCG. He joined Piraeus Bank Bulgaria in January 2016 as a General Manager responsible for Retail Banking, Branch Network and SMEs.

Marko Fabris

Director, Advisory Services, PwC SEE

Marko is Director in Advisory Services department in PwC SEE and has more than 15 years of professional experience in assignments across the region. He has wide-ranging experience in advisory work, focusing on business recovery and transaction services. He has led numerous restructuring, NPL and turnaround assignments within both, in-court and out-of-court frameworks. He has advised on more than 15 NPL disposal transactions in last three years. Marko is a member of European Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals (EACTP), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Chamber of Certified Auditors of Serbia (KOR). He was the first president of Turnaround Management Association (TMA) in Serbia.

Radomir Milanov

Managing Director, SAP Bulgaria

Mr. Milanov, 41, gradudated Macroeconomics at the UNWE, Sofia, and has a Master Degree from Henley Business School at Universtiy of Reading, UK. He worked 11 years in IBM, while in this period he had various local and international positions. Prior the promotion he was the Commercial Director of SAP Bulgaria and he was responsible for the sales and the business strategy of SAP in the banking, finance and insurance, energy, domestic services, and telecom sectors in the country. His responsibilities included the creation, management, development, and the expansion of the partnership network in Bulgaria.

Valentin Mihov

Financial Services Executive and Management Consultant, Founder, Valor Advisers

Valentin Mihov has more than 20 years professional experience in management consulting and banking. His focus over the years has been on strategy, organizational development, transformation, integration and turnaround. He has led multiple strategy assignments and implementation programs as associate partner at McKinsey and Company and later as Head of Transformation at Commerzbank in Germany, Head of Strategy at Sberbank Russia and Board Member for Strategy, Organization, IT and Operations in Sberbank Europe. Since 2018, Valentin works with several institutions in CEE on their strategy, digital transformation and organizational development directly or as Senior Advisor with selected management consultancy firms. Valentin holds an MBA degree from INSEAD.

Atanas Simeonov

Founder and CEO, Amatas

Atanas Simeonov is the owner of VIP Security, which he founded along with his father in 1999 as part of S Group International. VIP Security has been expanding ever since and today it has more than 5000 employees, being the biggest security company in Bulgaria. Mr. Simeonov is a member of the Board of Directors of Endeavor Bulgaria. The association selects and supports Bulgarian entrepreneurs whose alone revenues in 2015 reached 8.2 billion dollars, thus allowing for over 600,000 job positions to be opened. In 2016, Atanas Simeonov, together with other members of the board of Endeavor founded Armada Capital, which is investing in start-up technology companies with growth potential and positive impact on the Bulgarian business ecosystem. In 2016 Atanas Simeonov has founded Amatas Jsc as the first cybersecurity company in Bulgaria supplying comprehensive solutions using the unique for the industry "As a service" management model.

Igor Pravica

Country Leader, IBM Bulgaria

Frank Jansen

Member of the Country Team of KBC Group for Bulgaria, Member of the Management Board of United Bulgarian Bank, Executive Director Corporate and SME, United Bulgarian Bank

Frank Jansen was appointed Executive Director and member of the Management Board of CIBANK in May 2008, following the acquisition of 75% of CIBANK’s capital by KBC Group – a Belgian bancassurance group - at the end of 2007. His professional career started as a manager of various retail and corporate branches of KBC Belgium. During the period 1999 – 2003 he consequently held the positions of Director CSOB Bank Prague and Executive Director of Kredyt Bank Poland, where he was responsible for credit risk management and consumer finance. From 2003 until his appointment at CIBANK he was General Manager for KBC France. Frank Jansen has a Master’s Degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Antwerp.