Настояща месторабота: Chairman of the Board of the Maritime Cluster Bulgaria

Education:
- Master in "Economics and Trade Management" - University of Economics - Varna;
- Postgraduate "Corporate Management" - NBU - Sofia.

Brief CV:
Ilze Atanasova began her professional career in the ship repair sector in 1995 as part of the team of "Chakarov" OOD. Since 2002, he has been the procurator of "Varna Maritime" OOD.

Parallel to his engagement in the private business sector, since 2007 he has been working in the Bulgarian non-governmental sphere, as a co-founder of Maritime Cluster Bulgaria. Her interests cover blue growth policies, domestic and international maritime cooperation, facilitating communication between different maritime business communities, education, academia and related institutional bodies. Initiated and led an expert group on internationalization of SMEs, participation in a monitoring group of OP "Maritime and Fisheries", participation in the initiative of DG MARE for the development of careers and skills in blue sectors, participation in the EC Waterborne TP, in the National Hub to The Black Sea Support Mechanism for the Common Black Sea Agenda (BSAM).

He has been a member of the European Network of Maritime Clusters (ENMC) since 2010, a member of the Board of the Association of Business Clusters in Bulgaria (now BRAIT) since 2011, where he deals with the promotion and development of cluster initiatives in the country, a member of NA of AIKB. In the period 2012 - 2015, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Metalock International Association. Since 2012, he has been the Chairman of the Board of the Maritime Cluster Bulgaria.

Ms. Atanasova has been invited as a speaker in various international and national events focused on Blue Economy topics and maritime cluster activities. He has experience as a project manager focusing on maritime policies, SME competitiveness, maritime innovation, skills and education in traditional and high-potential sectors of the blue economy.