Alberto Rodriguez is a Country Sector Coordinator and Lead Education Specialist working with the Europe and Central Asia Region, and currently, Acting Sector Manager for Education in Europe and Central Asia. He has worked on system-wide education reform issues with particular emphasis on their effects on national competitiveness. He has led the policy dialogue and has been Project Manager for World Bank education activities in Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Bolivia. His interests and experience are in educational administration and management, specifically in the financing of education systems, decentralization, school-based strategic development, innovation and competitiveness, and secondary education - both general and vocational/technical. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Rodriguez was a school teacher and administrator for 7 years, was an administrator in a private Bank in Bogotá- Colombia for 2 years, worked at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation as Fellow and as Director of the Adolescent Division, and was the Technical Secretary of the Ministry of Education in Colombia. Dr. Rodriguez holds a BS in Industrial Engineering, a MA in Educational Administration, a Master in Public Administration, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Michigan.

Bela Stankova is Learning and Development Director at a leading software company - Telerik. Bela manages both the training program for training and leadership skills of the company's staff and the Telerik Academy (an educational initiative for free software training for children and students), which she heads since November 2013. 
Bela has an extensive experience in providing specialized training and she is in charge of the professional development of over 800 Telerik employees in the company's offices in 7 countries.
Prior to joining Telerik, Bela has worked as a freelance consultant. She is a licensed corporate trainer certified in the areas of intercultural communication and conflict resolution and professional development and leadership skills .
Bela has a master's degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Central European University in Budapest and a bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Relations from the American University in Bulgaria.

Georgi Stoytchev has more than 18 years of experience in NGO and media management and professional journalism.
He has been executive director of the Open Society Institute – Sofia since 2005.
Before joining OSI-Sofia he served for 8 years as director and editor at the Bulgarian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic. He started his professional career as a newscast anchor and editor at the Bulgarian National Television in 1992.
Georgi Stoytchev holds a master degree in Philosophy from the St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University.
Since 2010 Georgi Stoychev has been actively involved in the development of the Bulgarian Universities Ranking System.

Tsvetan Tsvetanski is among the founders of the Center for Educational Initiatives from the very beginning in 1999 and Chairman of the Executive Board.
He worked as a researcher in the interdisciplinary section of the AIM Academy of Sciences in 1990-1992, and professor of history at the National School for Ancient Languages ​​and Cultures during 1992-1996.
Mr. Tsvetanski is an author of textbooks, and programs for secondary school approved by the Ministry of education and science. He is an expert in the use of e-learning platforms and a trainer of teachers teaching in secondary schools and the University of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski".
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Buryan Aleksiev is CEO at Biottery Ltd. - a start-up company funded by the Eleven Accelerator Venture Fund.
Behind the company, whose purpose is to make and sell organic energy drinks - stay Buryan (identifying the need for such a product) and Denitza (who is responsible for the marketing activities of the company). The project aims to create a clean, delicious and easy to transport energy, thereby helping active people.
Buryan studied at the Economics and Finance High School in Sofia till the ninth grade. When he turned 16, he became a private student and was given an individual educational plan.
Buryan has taken part in student exchange programs and has studied at a Finnish high school. He is also a co-author of a documentary about the Finnish education system.
Before founding Biottery, Buryan has worked in the commercial department of Walltopia and has also been part of the company's manufacturing and assembly department.

Reinhard H. Schmidt is a professor of finance at Frankfurt’s Goethe University since 1991. Before that, he was a professor at the Universities of Göttingen and Trier, and he had visiting positions in Stanford, Washington D.C, Paris, Milan, and Philadelphia. He had studied business administration and economics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he also obtained his diploma (1974), doctorate (1974) and his habilitation (1981).
In recent years his main fields of research are comparative financial systems, banking regulation and international banking and development finance. He has published 22 books and some 160 articles in academic journals and edited volumes. He is frequent commentator on radio and television in Germany and abroad and in newspapers and magazines, and a founding member of the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committeeand a member of the scientific committee of Unicredit-and-Universities Foundation.
For many years, Professor Schmidt has been active as an academic advisor in the field of development finance and a part time consultant in Latin America and Africa. For the first five years of its existence, he was the chairman of the supervisory board of ProCredit Holding AG.
Reinhard H. Schmidt has been the Chairman of the Finance Group at his home university, served as the Dean of the School of Business Administration and Economics for two years and was a member of the Academic Senate for six years.