Dr. Plamen Russev



The “scarcity of resources” is a mindset! Thanks to the technological advancement we live in abundance of opportunities. Plamen commits his life and resources to proving the above true. His work and investments further demonstrate that saving the human kind is a multi trillion opportunity!

Dr. Plamen Russev is a venture capitalist, futurist and philanthropist with 30 years experience in tech (with several exits) and investment world.

He is committed to investing and supporting proven, high growth, technology-enabled businesses generating social and environmental change alongside.

Back in 2009 he has established what is known today as the most competitive and large scale growth stage innovation platform The Founders Game for picking the best of the best innovators with impact globally and providing one of the world’s biggest funding award of $6M.

Over 250 VC investors score over 5000 growth companies (generating social and environmental impact) from 140+ countries per year and only 10 make it to the finals (read more about the Davos Winter Grand Finals).

He was awarded twice the tittle Doctor Honoris Causa from European and South American Universities;

Plamen is founding member of the European Commission’s Blockchain Observatory and Forum;

Plamen is B.Sc in Marketing and Management, M.Sc in Electronic Education/Mathematics and Physics, and Ph.D in Healthcare Management. His Doctorate thesis is ”Digital solutions for managing health and social challenges”;

Dr. Russev has founded the first publicly listed Investmet company (Webit Investment Network - BSE:WIN) to fund the worlds biggest investment award of the Founders Games. The WIN IPO was a huge success with over 2,43 times oversubscription by over 750 investors from the Webit community

Plamen is a community builder curating one of the world’s biggest communities of founders, investors, innovators, digerati and policymakers from all around the world gathered together under the Webit flag. Webit was founded back in 2008 and has grown into one of the most powerful tools for establishing cities and countries as global innovation hubs and magnets for global talents.

Dr. Russev has been appointed a GW Ambassador for Digital Affairs of his country, becoming the third such ambassador in the world.

Plamen Russev is featured in hundreds of international and local media and blogs including The Economist, Monocle, Bloomberg, CNBCe, Forbes, Venture Beat, Arabian Business, Al Jazeera, CNN to name a few.



Plamen Russev is keynoting and moderating events on 4 continents on topics including growing and investing innovation ecosystems, saving the human kind as a multi trillion opportunity, AI in healthcare, AI grown sustainable future, investing in companies generating high returns and social and environmental change alongside, establishing countries as hubs for innovation, and others.



WORK EXPERIENCE

  • Goodwill Ambassador for Digital Affairs
    of Republic of Bulgaria
  • Executive Chairman,
    Webit.Foundation
  • Investor
  • Founder and Managing Director,
    Webit Investment Network (BSE: WIN)
  • Founder and Managing Partner,
    Webit Capital Partners Fund
  • Member of European Commission's
    EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum.
  • Evaluator and Faculty Member,
    Medical School, Harvard University
  • Founder, Founders Games one of the world's premier and most competitive Growth stage competitions and programs globally with $6M funding award.
  • Founders and Chairman of
    Blockchain Governance Forum
  • Founder of a number of tech companies (some with successful exits)
  • Boad member and advisory roles in over 20 organizations
  • Memeber of a number of international associations and industry organizations

SELECTED HONORS, AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

  • Doctor Honoris Causa
    of VFU, Bulgaria
  • Doctor Honoris Causa
    of UDABOL, Bolivia
  • Top 3 Blockchain Investor for 2018 by CCForum
  • Awarded by Financial Times, Google, Respublica and Vishegrad Fund among the 100 New Europe Innovators.
  • Special Awards for overal commitment to the develpment of the digital economy of Bulgaria by BWA.
  • Award by the Government
    of New Zealand.
  • A number of international Digital Industry awards.
  • Best Selling Author - business literature for the book Power to the People.
  • Award by the Bulgarian Economic Forum.

EDUCATION

  • B.Sc from Varna University of Economics
    in Marketing and Management.
  • M.Sc from Sofia University in Mathematics
    and Informatics, e-Education.
  • Ph.D from Medical University of Varna. Doctorate Thesis:
    Digital Solutions for Managing Health and Social Challenges.

MORE INFO ABOUT DR. RUSSEV

  • Serial Entrepreneur with proven success record in developing business ventures in multicultural and challenging business environments.
  • Investor in tech companies with special interests and experience in Impact Investments in Healthcare, AI, IoT and as well as in eSports, VR and Real Estates.
  • Sitting on the board of a number of companies in different locations around the world.
  • Founder and Executive Chairman of Webit.Foundation and the Global Webit Series. Webit stands for a one of the largest global communities of digerati, academic, policy and enterprise leaders, investors and founders from over 100 countries. Webit also hosts events (5 annually in Sofia, Istanbul, Dubai, Singapore and New Delhi) attended by several thousand to 15 000 business people, academia leaders and policy makers from all around the world.
  • Member of a number of international academic, IT, marketing and non-profit organizations and trade associations.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP & EDITORIAL

  • „Sofia – Digital Capital of the New Markets“ is a brainchild of Plamen Russev. The Project is positioning Sofia as a digital and tech hub for the CEE region and beyond.
  • Author of the book „Power to the People“ (bestseller in Bulgaria).
  • Author of industry reports.
  • Author of the "New Doctrine for Intelligence Specialisation of the countries from the CEE region".

GOVERNMENTS AND PROJECTS

  • Working as partner of governments and their initiatives in Bulgaria, Turkey, UAE, Spain, Singapore, India and others for boosting entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation, technology transfer; building links between academia and industry; attracting investors, entrepreneurs and enterprise to the selected locations

In The News


Media Kit

Download (JPG)Photo
Download (PDF)Webit Logo

Video Resources

Speeches


TV interviews and coverage


Others about Plamen Russev

Anthony Psacharopoulos

“Plamen is a natural leader with a strong vision for the development of the Internet industry across the CEE region.”

Anthony Psacharopoulos, Senior Vice President, comScore, Inc.

Diego Semprún de Castellane

“Plamen is a top performer in Education & Promotion of Internet in Eastern Europe. He is a person of choice if you plan to introduce yourself or your company to the emerging markets"

Diego Semprún de Castellane, Managing Director, EMEA Emerging Markets, Nielsen Online

Andy Chen

“A charismatic leader and visionary evangelist in the digital industry, Plamen has created not only a great conference but more importantly a community of business and thought-leaders in the EMEA region to collectively accelerate the growth of digital and innovation.”

Andy Chen, Vice President of Digital Sales and Media, MTV Europe / Viacom Brand Solutions International

Tom Bowman

“Plamen has become a focal point for the rapidly growing Central and Eastern European digital industry. Through activities such as the excellent Webit Congress, and because of his energy, collaborative approach and vision, he is both speeding the growth of this sector and bringing valuable international awareness and interest. I am honoured to know him.”

Tom Bowman, VP Strategy and Operations, BBC Worldwide

Steffen Ehrhardt

“Plamen is an impressive pioneer/evangelist for the online industry in Region. He is a very important driver of the industry in the region with a very strong vision and a focus on doing businesses on scale which is especially important in a region that consists of a lot of countries.”

Steffen Ehrhardt, Project Manager & Product Specialist Emerging Markets, Google

Rossen Plevneliev

Plamen Russev is one of the pioneers and he works for the sake of Bulgaria to help the country build its reputation in the digiatl and tech fields. His vision for the digital future of Bulgaria is also mine!

Rossen Plevneliev, President of Republic of Bulgaria

Alain Heureux

“A trully professional energizer for the Digital Industry in the entire Region”

Alain Heureux, President, IAB Europe and Belgium

Power to the people - the new marketing

Power to the people - the new marketing


The best selling book "Power to the People - the new marketing" is a guide to creating online identity and engaging in conversation. It reveals a step-by-step process of successfully using social media for business.

In the first part @Plamen Russev explains the social media phenomenon. The second part provides precise guidelines to creating both a personal profile and a brand page. Althouh we all know how to do that, if you read the book you'll understand why some are more successful than others. The third part is dedicated to a comprehensive plan for creating a social media marketing strategy. The forth and last part of the book provides proven tools and solutions of successful online reputation management.

"Power to the people - the new marketing" is published by e-Academy - the EU-certified educational institution for professional online business and digital marketing education.