User:Bbakardjiev/Ivo Prokopiev

Ivo Prokopiev (born July 10, 1971) is one of the Bulgarian business and opinion leaders with strong public commitments. He has been reelected Chairman of the largest business association in Bulgaria: the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG). He is also Deputy Chairman of the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria.

Ivo Prokopiev represents Bulgaria in several international boards: in the Board of the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA); in the Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA); in the Consultative Council of UniCredit Group.

Ivo Prokopiev is one of the founders of TRANSFUSE, a network comprising business and political leaders in the Balkans. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alfa Finance Holding and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Economedia publishing house.

Public commitments:
Ivo Prokopiev occupies the position of Chairman of the Management Board of the largest business association: the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG), the most representative association of the Bulgarian business whose members produce around 60% of the country's GDP.

Ivo Prokopiev has been a member of the Economic Council of former President Petar Stoyanov, and in this capacity he actively participated in the consultations regarding the introduction of the currency board arrangement in 1997.

In his capacity of a representative of the employers, between 2003 and 2005, Ivo Prokopiev held the position of Chairman of the National Social Security Institute's Supervisory Board, i.e.: the pension system's first state pillar.

Prokopiev is Deputy Chairman of the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria. Within the Union's structure, he is responsible for the international activities and a number of projects. One of these is the establishment of ethical code of conduct and ethical commissions for the Bulgarian media jointly with the BBC under an EU programme.

Ivo Prokopiev represents Bulgaria in several international boards: in the Consultative Council of UniCredit Group; in the Board of the European Newspaper Publishers' Association (ENPA).

Following the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Ivo Prokopiev was recently elected to represent Bulgaria in the new Board of WAN-IFRA.

He also is one of the founders of TRANSFUSE, a network comprising business and political leaders in the Balkans.

Business:
Ivo Prokopiev is Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Alfa Finance Holding. Alfa Finance Holding is a leading Bulgarian industrial and financial group with four main business lines: industrial minerals, financial services, real estate and clean energy. The Holding also invests successfully in logistics, construction, and telecommunications sectors. The Group comprises more than 30 companies and is actively involved in projects in Bulgaria, and other seven countries in East and South East Europe (Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine). The Holding structure manages assets exceeding EUR 1.5 billion.

Ivo Prokopiev is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of Economedia Publishing House, the second largest publishing house in the country and a leader in the premium quality press segment. The media group was founded in 1993 by him and Philip Harmandjiev and today it owns more than 25 editions, among them print publications, licensed magazines, business to business publications and internet products, including the business daily Dnevnik [www.dnevnik.bg] and the weekly Capital [www.capital.bg].

Ivo Prokopiev holds a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia and Executive MBA from INSEAD.