Vassil Georgiev Velev (born April 1, 1959) is the Executive Director of Stara Planina Hold AD and Chairman of the Governing Board (GB) of Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).

In 1977 he graduated with honours from the 133rd High School in Sofia. He has won a number of awards in competitions in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. Mr. Velev graduated from the School of O.R. at the Higher Air Force Academy in the town of D. Mitropolia, specializing in “Aircraft and Engine Technical Maintenance”, and got promoted to the rank of an officer in 1978. In 1984 he graduated with honours from the Faculty of Automation at the Technical University in Sofia winning a gold medal as the champion of his class. In 2008 Vassil Velev obtained a master’s degree from the University of Economics in Varna, specializing in Corporate Development and Management.

Since the inception of private business in recent Bulgarian history, he has taken part in it initially through activities mainly in the areas of financial asset management, trade, real estate, mechanical engineering. Velev is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Interfininvest AD, Managing Partner of BIC Hold and others.

He is an initiator of the establishment and first president of numbers of non-governmental organizations. He established the first foundation in our country after the beginning of the democratic changes – Eureka Foundation, which preserved the property and traditions of TNTM, and the Aid for Charity in Bulgaria (BCause) Foundation.

For a little while he leaded a Management of Non-Profit Organizations course at the University of National and World Economy. He has won a number of awards for his contribution to the development of civil society in Bulgaria as a prize of the Economic and Social Council. In 2013 he was awarded with the traditional prize of the Union of People’s Chitalishte “Follower of the People’s Awakeners”.

Mr. Velev is a co-founder and Executive Director of Stara Planina Hold JSC since 1999. In the recent years, the company has been invariably included in the stock exchange indices SOFIX, BGBX40 and BGTR30 on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, and since its inception it has been included in the index of companies with the best corporate governance CGIX. Stara Planina Hold AD is included in a number of Dow Jones indices for Central and Eastern Europe as well. It is the only company in our country that pays dividends every year since its establishment in the last century until today. Five of its subsidiaries are also listed on the stock exchange. In 2016 three of the companies in the group managed by Vassil Velev are among the 10-th ranking investors “TOP 10 shares of the forum”. He has won a number of business awards such as the Burov Prize, the Icarus Business Award, among others.

He is the Executive Director of “M+S Hydraulics” JSC and “HES” JSC, managing partner of “BIK Hold” LTD, “Garant 5” LTD, “Velev Invest” LTD, member of the Board of Directors of “Elhim Iskra” JSC and ” Bulgarian Rose” JSC.

One of the founders of Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association. During the presidency of Vassil Velev, BICA was recognized as a representative organization of employers at the national level.

He was elected a member of the Council of the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a member of the National Commission for Corporate Governance, a member of the Board of the University of Economics – Varna, a member of the Board of the Silver Fund, a member of the National Strategic Reference Framework Monitoring Committee (Partnership Agreement), member of the National Economic Council, Deputy Chairman of the Economic and Social Council, Deputy Chairman of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, etc.

He is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Technical University – Sofia, Vice-Chairman of the Board of the “Eureka” Foundation, and a rotating Chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Employers’ Organizations in 2021.