Our people
We are a dynamic team combining unique experience from research, technology, government, law, and community empowerment. We have started and implemented successful initiatives at the national and the international level, including at NATO, the European Union and the World Bank.
The team
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Ivan Draganov
- GATE
- SkillCatalyst
- World Bank
- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
- Dealroom.co
- AI
- Innovation management
- Consultancy
- Deep-tech
- Ecosystem building
Ivan directs CORE. He works on technology transfer at the GATE Institute, Sofia University, connecting university research in artificial intelligence and big data to the needs of companies and public institutions, and advises the World Bank Group's Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation practice on AI adoption. He co-founded Skill Catalyst, through which he has trained more than 2,500 professionals in accredited national programmes, and spent five years at Dealroom.co in Amsterdam mapping European deep-tech ecosystems and building AI-readiness indicators for EU regions. He holds an MSc in financial economics from Erasmus School of Economics and is a doctoral candidate in informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Borislav Bankov, PhD
- GATE
- NATO
- Europol
- Amnesty International
- Ministry of Innovation and Growth
- Hybrid warfare
- Research
- Government relations
- Innovation management
Borislav leads CORE's research programme. He heads the NATO DIANA Test Centre for data and artificial intelligence at the GATE Institute, Sofia University, and deputises for Bulgaria's representative on NATO's Data and AI Review Board. He spent four years in NATO's Emerging Security Challenges Division, where as secretary of the Data Exploitation Working Group he contributed to the Alliance's Data Exploitation Framework Policy, and served as Deputy Minister of Innovation and Growth in Bulgaria's caretaker government. He holds a PhD in political science from Sofia University and an MSc in public policy from University College London, and publishes on hybrid warfare, dual-use technology and cyber resilience.
Martin Stamenov
- Deep Sentrics
- NATO
- Sensika Technologies
- Defence innovation
- Digital transformation
- Horizon scanning
- Innovation sprints
Martin builds CORE's diagnostic instruments and data infrastructure. He is founder and chief executive of Deep Sentrics, which develops AI systems for defence, government and national security, and has delivered NATO work including an ontology-based knowledge and data fusion layer for next-generation command and control, and an analysis platform used to assess emerging and disruptive technologies. Before that he led artificial intelligence at Sensika Technologies, building natural-language processing over media from more than 200 territories and 100 languages for work on disinformation. He read computer science at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Peyo Staribratov
- Bulgarian Cybersecurity Association
- Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski
- Ministry of Education and Science
- Skill Catalyst
- European Digital Innovation Hub
- Cybersecurity
- Training
- Capacity building
- Research
Peyo leads CORE's education and capacity-building work. He co-founded Skill Catalyst, where he developed twenty training programmes accredited by Bulgaria's Ministry of Education and Science, and he trains staff from ministries and municipalities at the Institute of Public Administration on data-informed decision-making and on handling sensitive information safely in AI tools. As a cybersecurity expert with the Bulgarian Cybersecurity Association he works on cyber hygiene, digital risk and responsible AI use, and he appears as a guest expert on those subjects in national television and radio. He is a doctoral candidate at Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski researching how large organisations adopt artificial intelligence, and holds an MSc in applied mathematics.
Todor Isov, LLM
- Plovdiv Bar Association
- Isov, Kutryanski and Partners
- Data protection
- Civil law
- Commercial law
- Banking law
- Administrative law
Todor advises CORE on law and data protection. He is an attorney with the Plovdiv Bar Association, practising at the Plovdiv firm Isov, Kutryanski and Partners, where his work centres on the General Data Protection Regulation: advising on compliance, and representing individuals before state authorities and in court where personal data has been handled unlawfully. He also practises in civil, commercial, banking, insurance, administrative and tax law. He holds a master's degree in law, awarded with distinction, from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.