Risk, Issue, Crisis and Reputation Management

Gergana Vassileva is a corporate advisor, executive coach, communication professional and expert in reputation management with a long-term proven record of successful multi-scale campaigns for international clients. Her career includes advisory assignments, designing and developing communication campaigns and leadership programmes for companies like P&G, Lufthansa, Western Union, Philips, BASF, Shell, OMV, ING, IBM, Diageo, Master Foods, Unicef, Abbott, Bulgarian Telecom, Autodesk, Coty, to mention but a few.

Since 2004 Gergana is the Managing Director of UPR Consultancy and since June 2005 is the Director of the Bulgarian branch of London School of PR. She is an experienced facilitator and leadership coach. Gergana is a full member of Association for Coaching in UK since 2009 and accredited Executive Coach.

Gergana holds degrees in Marketing, Management and International Economy. She is a certified NLP Practitioner by Robert Dilts at University of California Santa Cruz, USA. In 2010 she completed her Master Executive Coach training with Sir John Whitmore in London.

Her previous experience in the automotive marketing field starts with Toyota; great value in her carrier adds her experience at S Team Saatchi & Saatchi, the advertising agency, working for many international brands. Currently Daniela Dimitrova is pursuing Executive MBA degree.

Dora believes that Marketing is a great profession, interesting mix of deep and detailed market knowledge, deep understanding of competition and finance, intuition and a bit creativity. She believes she is lucky to practice this profession and to work in a great company that enables her to work with the whole marketing mix and also allows its people to grow within the organization challenged in different professions, countires and cultures.

John Dalton is a recognised authority on reputation management, in particular its related disciplines of issue and crisis management. John has taught reputation management and related disciplines in over 30 countries. He is also the author of many books and has published countless business and economic articles. In 2012 John contributed to a major book on Reputation Management, published by Bloomsbury, along with some of the leading authorities in crisis and reputation management globally.
In addition to teaching, John also provides consultancy services to multinational companies, in particular from within the pharmaceutical and oil industries, as well as advising NGOs and foreign governments. As a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, John has a keen interest in reputations and risks posed by international security threats to corporations and NGOs.
In 2012 John also became Director of the Centre for Issue and Crisis Management, which acts as both a think tank and an advisory service to multinational corporations exploring global risks to their brands. John has been instrumental in extending the scope of traditional reputation management by encouraging organisations and NGOs to be more aware and informed of how geopolitical events can impact on brands and their operations.

Lyubov Kostova is currently Director of the British Council in Bulgaria. Before that she was Head Projects & Partnerships (2008-12) and Public Communications & Marketing Manager (2000-2008) at the British Council. Earlier still worked at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts as the international liaison manager.

Her career has always involved different aspects of public relations. Founder and organiser of festivals, initiator and manager of a number of international projects and events, creator of various networks, Lyubov’s career has always had areas of communication at its centre. Her pet project is the global expansion of the UK science communication competition FameLab® originally developed by the Cheltenham Science Festival and now delivered in 25 countries worldwide. She prides herself in launching the latter’s international final in the UK. She has gained extensive expertise in communicating science to society, and in 2011 co-founded of the Sofia Science Festival – the only event of its kind in Bulgaria.

Born in Bulgaria, grown up in Cuba, educated in a Russian tradition, living in Europe. Working for IBM since 1995. Journalist, car racer and a licensed sea captain. As part of the IBM Growth Markets Unit's External Relations team Svetlana is responsible for Smarter Computing initiatives helping more than 140 countries promote IBM's Smarter Computing approach to IT and instill intelligent communications in IBM's day-to-day business.
She earned her Master of Science Degree in Economics from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Later she specialised PR and Advertising at the Sofia University. In 2003 she earned a Diploma in Marketing from The Chartered Institute of Marketing in Manchester in the UK. Svetlana speaks English, Spanish, Russian, Czech and a bit of German.

Velislava Popova is the Editor-in-chief of “Dnevnik” since November 2008. Before that she was Marketing director of "Economedia" (publisher of “Dnevnik” and “Capital” and other quality media). She started to develop the marketing & communication strategy of the company in October 2004, when she created also the department. Her professional CV includes more than six years work as a reporter and editor of "Media & Advertising" section in "Capital". In 2008 she also took part in the project of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), developing scenarios for the future of newspapers in 10 years.

Velislava Popova has master degree in Journalism from the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", with specialisations in "TV journalism" and "International Relations". She also had media specializations in U.S.A. and Germany. Popova has participated in an international research project about media ownership in Central and Eastern Europe (2004). She worked for the NGO "No Fear" (1997) and for Radio "Stara Zagora" (1993-1996). She graduated German language school. She is a member of the board of the "Gorichka" in 2012.

Maria Toycheva is a high-level marketing expert with more than 15 years of experience in the field of marketing, advertising and journalism. She has got a proven record of successful branding & brand positioning, PR & corporate communications, Inbound & Outbound marketing, sales and customer service projects. Some of Maria’s most successful projects are connected to her work for BTC Group, as the development and launch of the ADSL and VoIP services as well as the development and establishment of the vivatel brand (the third GSM operator in Bulgaria). Maria took active part in a number of transformation projects BTC Group went through - privatisation, launch of a new mobile operator, merge of the two brands - BTC and vivatel.
Maria is a co-founder of the Bulgarian Association of Advertisers.

Maria holds a Master degree in Marketing and Management from the University of National and World Economy - Sofia. She has received a number of prestigious awards, as EFFIEs, ARA’s, BAM, BAPRA: for effectiveness of her communication campaigns, for best marketing and PR campaigns, new brand launch on the market, best brand manager for new brand launch.

Irena Komitova is a seasoned professional with specialization in marketing, human resource development, motivation and sales training; management consulting; PR, lobbying and negotiations, advertising and publishing; branding and support. Her executive experience includes positions as General Manager of Oriflame Bulgaria (1994-2000); Executive Vice-President Sales & Marketing of Allianz Bulgaria Holding (2001-2002), General Manager Kamor Auto (2002-2004). Her teaching and consulting experience has been demonstrated in launching the EMBA program of the American Univesity in Bulgaria (2003). At present she holds Board positions at Orgachim AD, and The Black Sea Property Fund and is a Managing Partner in Creative Solutions Ltd. and AgroAqua AD.

Ms Komitova is a Stanford Sloan M.Sc in Management (2001); is an alumna of the Pew Economic Freedom Fellow Program at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University (1993); graduate from the Georgetown Leadership Seminar (1993); Global Leader for Tomorrow of the World Economic Forum in Davos (2000); Woman-Manager of the Year in Bulgaria (1996). Irena Komitova also has a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the High Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Sofia.

Magdalena Nikolova has extensive practical experience in the sphere of coaching, trainings and organizational psychology from her work with managers and their teams in Bulgaria, Switzerland and France. She holds a Master Degree in Organizational Psychology and Human Resources Management from Lausanne University, Switzerland.

She is certified as NLP Trainer, NLP Master Practitioner and NLP New Code coach by John Grinder (Co-creator of NLP) and Carmen Bostic St. Claire (NLP New Code co-creator) and Michael Carroll from International Trainers Academy of NLP Academy, London, UK. She is the first and only NLP Trainer in Bulgaria personally trained and certified by the co-creator of NLP – John Grinder. Magdalena is also trained as a Work-Life Balance specialist by John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St. Claire.In 2008 – 2009 Magdalena specializes in coaching at the Coaches Training Institute, Paris. In 2007, she was the first Bulgarian coach to join the International Coaching Federation.

Magdalena was a regular lecturer in Human Resources and Organizational consulting in the Lausanne University, Switzerland and in Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, where she teaches courses in the field of Organizational behavior and Human Resources.