Milena Stoycheva is the CEO of JA Bulgaria and co-founder of its spin-off company The Edge: R&BD. She teaches innovation and entrepreneurship as a visiting scholar at the EIT Digital Master School.
An entrepreneur and educator, she is passionate about education and creating opportunities for young people to develop their talents and discover their future. In pursuit of this mission, it engages diverse stakeholders to build ecosystems that make positive change sustainable. She is the recipient of JA Worldwide’s highest individual global leadership award “Soraya Salti” for 2021 in recognition of social impact through economic empowerment, as well as the Women’s Leadership Award of the US Embassy in Bulgaria.
Milena is an executive with more than 20 years of experience in international organizations and companies, having also served as Chair of the Global Membership Council of JA Worldwide and Senior Advisor for Higher Education at JA Europe.
She was the first Dean of Students of the American University in Bulgaria after its establishment in 1991. In addition, she participated in the core entrepreneurship and science group of the Intel Education Team in Europe.
She is a member of the steering committee of the European Group of Women Founders and actively works to promote the role of women entrepreneurs in creating diverse and sustainable innovation ecosystems. He has degrees and specializations from Bulgarian and American universities, including Penn State University, Berkeley and MIT.
