Irena Mladenova is a member of the Business Administration Department at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski. Her research interests include organisational change and development, organisational culture, strategic management and sustainable development.

Irena has over 20 years of experience in the private and public sectors. She worked at international management consultancy companies (Kearney, PwC) delivering projects for regional and local leaders in Eastern European countries. She managed projects for structuring and restructuring processes, procurement costs, optimisation strategies, analysis and optimisation of product portfolio, assessment and planning the launch of new products and new market entries. Her experience includes the development and implementation of new organisational structure and strategy, development of tactical and business plans. She participated in several business potential and market sizing assessments as part of merger and acquisition deals, both on the buyer and the seller sides. She served as Head of Corporate Development and a member of the managing board at a group level for a regional energy services company. Irena worked for five years in the public sector in Bulgaria as an advisor at the Ministry of Economy and the Administration of the President and served as Deputy Minister of Economy at three caretaker governments (2013, 2014, 2021). She is a practising management consultant.

As part of the IICT-BAS team, Irena participates in the ECHO project where she is involved in work package 3 with focus on developing the governance model and governance consultancy services.