Jamil Salmi is a global tertiary education expert providing consulting services to several multilateral and bilateral agencies as well as a number of universities. Until January 2012, he was the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator. He wrote the first World Bank policy paper on higher education in 1994 and was the principal author of the Bank’s 2002 Tertiary Education Strategy entitled "Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education". In the past twenty years, Mr. Salmi has provided policy advice on tertiary education reform and strategic planning to governments and university leaders in more than 70 countries all over the world.
Mr. Salmi is a member of the international advisory board of several universities in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He is also a member of the International Advisory Network of the UK Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, and the Editorial Committee of OECD’s Journal of Higher Education Management and Policy. Between 2008 and 2011, he represented the World Bank on the Governing Board of the International Institute for Educational Planning.
Mr. Salmi’s 2009 book addresses the "Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities". His latest book, co-edited with Professor Phil Altbach, entitled "The Road to Academic Excellence: the Making of World-Class Research Universities", was published in September 2011.

Sasha Bezuhanova is the HP Public Sector, Health and Life Science Director for Central Eastern Europe. She is responsible for the corporation’s government and health business in 27 countries including Russia, new Europe, Western Balkans and Central Asia.
Bezuhanova started her career in HP as General Manager for Hewlett-Packard Bulgaria in 1998 achieving its position as a market leader in the ICT sector in Bulgaria for 10 years on a row. She drove an important investment of HP in Bulgaria where in 2006 started operation Global Delivery Centre. Today it employs 4000 high profile professional engineers who deliver services in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Prior HP Sasha manages for 3 years the country operation of the Austrian headquartered S&T, exclusive distributor of HP in South East Europe in that time.
Her professional career starts in Central Institute for Computer Technologies after finishing her Masters in Electronics in Technical University in Sofia.
Sasha has important social development engagements and recognitions in Bulgaria and Europe. Recently she has been named one of the Top 5 most influential women in Bulgaria.

Dobromira Manasieva is a Senior Manager Corporate Programs for Training, Development and Remuneration in the Human Resources Division of VIVACOM since January 2009. She is responsible for elaboration and implementation of performance appraisal policy and related rewards, training, development and retention programs for employees, university relations and youth development programs.
Dobromira has work experience in the HR management for 10 years and most of her practice is in the telecommunications area.
Dobromira started her career in the HR department of the international company Danone. Three years later she moved to Globul during the launch of the mobile operator in Bulgaria, where she was engaged in structuring and implementing new policies and procedures.
She joined BTC at the end of 2004. At that time, just after the privatization of the company, she was responsible for the job grading and performance evaluation processes. A year after she became HR Manager of the newest mobile operator in Bulgaria – vivatel, part of BTC Group. As of March 2006 Dobromira took a professional path in an industry, which was new for Bulgaria – outsourcing of technical support services – where she undertook the challenge of starting new projects for technical support and customer service in Bulgaria for three of the largest IT companies worldwide.
Starting from April 2012, Dobromira will head the HR directorate of VIVACOM and will become a HR Director.

André Richier is Principal Administrator at the European Commission in Brussels within the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. He is responsible for policy issues relating to ICT for competitiveness, innovation and human capital, in particular the Commission's Communication on "e-Skills for the 21st Century". He was the 2002-2003 EU Fellow attached to the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. He played a leading role in the preparation of the "e-Learning: Designing Tomorrow’s Education" Initiative and Action Plan in 2001 within the Directorate General Education and Culture. In the 1990s, he was in charge of research projects in the field of multimedia within the European Strategic Programme for Research in Information Technology (ESPRIT). Prior to joining the Commission in 1994, he held sales and marketing positions in the ICT industry. He started his career at IBM in 1985.  

Dr. Cyrus Reed has been the new vice-chancellor of the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) since August 2010.
Dr. Reed has a long academic career in higher education in the U.S. and worldwide. Before being approved for the post at AUBG, he was vice president of international academic programs in the New York Institute of Technology, where he managed five international campuses - in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Amman, Vancouver and Nanjing. From 2002 to 2006 he was second vice-president of international programs at Ball State University, and from 2006 to 2007 he held a similar position at the American University in Cairo, where he previously taught for eight years. 
Dr. Reed has Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, USA.

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.






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