Milena Stoycheva is the CEO of JA Bulgaria and The Edge: R&BD and Visiting Professor with the EIT Digital Master School in I&E (Innovation and Entrepreneurship). 

Entrepreneur and educator, she is passionate about the importance of education and the opportunity for young people to develop their talents and discover their future as entrepreneurs.

Milena is an executive with more than 20 years of experience in international organizations and companies, who has also served as the Chair of the Global Member Council of JA Worldwide and Senior Adviser of Higher Education of JA Europe.   She has participated in the “start up” of the American University in Bulgaria and a few of her own ventures; served on the entrepreneurship and science core group of several corporate partners like Intel, HP, etc.; worked for a while as a journalist with AP television; as well as mentored and coached teams in different training programs on business development and technology entrepreneurship.  She is a member of the expert group with DG Education and Culture and OECD on entrepreneurship and innovation in higher education.

In the last five years, she has been delivering courses in innovation, business development and digital transformation for some of the EIT Digital master and doctoral school programs in Europe.   She likes to pursue and develop new ventures and feels confident that there is a place for crazy dreamers and “fire” starters in our society.

 She has degrees from Bulgarian and US universities.