EKO Bulgaria, Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment “Saint Marina – Pleven” and ProCredit Bank – With the Most Successful IT Managers for 2016

The Awards “IT Manager of the Year” Were Held by Freddy Van den Wyngaert, President of the Management Board of the Euro CIO (The European CIO Association), Alexandar Yolovsky, Deputy Chairman of the State Agency “E-government” and Yuriy Genov, Chairman of CIO Club Bulgaria and Executive Director and Member of the Management Board of DSK Bank

On December 7th in Sofia Hotel Balkan, Sofia, Bulgaria, were awarded the winners in the competition “IT Manager of the Year” for 2016. The contest which was held for ninth consecutive year was organized by ICT Media/ CIO magazine and the Bulgarian CIO Club. Its purpose is to distinguish CIOs who have contributed for the business development by effective implementation of IT and to outline the important role of the CIOs in the business management.

Traditionally awards were given in three categories – “Management”, “Innovations”, “Effectiveness”. They were handed respectively by Freddy Van den Wyngaert, President of the Management Board of the Euro CIO (the European CIO Association), Alexandar Ylovsky, Deputy-Chairman of the State Agency “E-government” and Yuriy Genov, Chairman of CIO Club Bulgaria and Executive Director and Member of the Management Board of DSK Bank.

The prize in the category “Management” went to Vasil Masharov, CIO, EKO Bulgaria. His runners-up were Ivan Stanchin, Senior Manager Information Security, UniCredit Bulbank and Eng. Pavlina Hristova, Head of “Information and Communication Technologies” Department, Gabrovo Municipality.

In the category “Innovations” the winner is George Karaargirov, Director “IT and Innovations”, Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment “Saint Marina – Pleven”. His runners-up were George Georgiev, CIO, GoodMills Bulgaria and Eng. Dr. Anatoly Peshev, CIO, Victoria Group.

The winner in the category “Effectiveness” is George Georgiev, CIO, ProCredit Bank. His runners-up were Vladimir Velkov, CIO, Festo and Eng. George Georgiev, CIO of Mariza Iztok Mines during the period 2009–2016.

The traditional special award, established in memoriam of Yavor Dimitrov, one of the founders of the CIO Club and member of the Managing Board, went to George Karaargirov, Director “IT and Innovations”, Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment “Saint Marina – Pleven”. The award was handed in by Nina Stoyanova, Deputy Governor Banking Department, Bulgarian National Bank.

This year the organizers of the competition decided to hand one more special award – statuette for socially significant IT project was held to Eng. Pavlina Hristova, Head of “Information and Communication Technologies” Department of Gabrovo Municipality. The prize is awarded for development and implementation of the web platform “Electronic buyer profile”. The system is developed by the IT team of the Municipality based on open source software, combined with some free components for achieving the needed functionality of the website.

For the fifth time the Bulgarian CIO Club handed out “CLUB CIO” scholarships

for studenst with achievments in the sphere of the natural sciences. The scholarships (each of them 1200 BGN) aims to encourage outstanding young people to professional development in the

sphere of application of IT for the needs of the business and deaper penetration of IT in different companies. This year the CIO Club in Bulgaria awarded 7 young people: six of the scholarships were financed by the CIO Club and the seventh – by EKO Bulgaria.

The ceremony “IT Manager of the Year” was held in partnership with BORICA – BANKSERVICE, Mobiltel and UniCredit Bulbank and in cooperation with the International Hotel Casino & Tower Suites, Georgievi Bros, Chivas and Dicota.

Before the Ceremony was held a round table on the topic “Leadership in the technologies when IT is everywhere”. Moderator of the round table was Yuriy Genov, Chairman of CIO Club and Executive Director and Member of the Management Board of DSK Bank. Among the participants were Freddy Van den Wyngaert, President of the Management Board of Euro CIO (The European CIO Association); Alexander Ivanov, CIO, Petrol; Ivan Takev, CIO, Gopet Trans; Veselin Rashin, Manager Business Operation Center, UNIQA Bulgaria; Laszlo Papp, Partner and Managing Director, i-Tango Ltd., Gartner Bulgaria and Hungary; Hristo Stoyanov, Financial Director, Boni Holding and Hristo Hristov, Founder and CEO of Discordia and member of the Board of CEIBG.

The round table was held in partnership with the International Hotel Casino & Tower Suites and in cooperation with Chivas, Gartner and Georgievi Bros.