Boyan Rashev
Managing Partner, Denkstatt Bulgaria
Mr. Boyan Rashev is one of the leading sustainability experts in Bulgaria. Since 2007, he has been a Managing partner at denkstatt – the premier advisory on natural and social capital management in Bulgaria. Boyan has 15 years of work experience in the fields of environmental management, valuation of ecosystem services and impact assessments, climate change mitigation and adaptation, water management and corporate sustainability. His experience also includes workshop moderation, training courses, presentations and dissemination on sustainability and environmental policy topics as well as managing the diverse stakeholders for major projects and institutions in Bulgaria. Boyan has worked with many different businesses including mining, energy, retail, telecoms, food & beverage to financial industry as well as institutions such as Sofia Municipality, Ministry of Environment and Water and European Commission. He is very active in shaping the sustainability agenda in Bulgaria by regularly publishing articles, participating in TV talks and public discussions on critical topics.
Boyan holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental and Resource Management from Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany. He also studied at the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.
Mining in Bulgaria: Navigating through Stakeholder Issues
Bulgaria is a challenging place to invest for the mining industry. In the last 40 years, there is only one successfully completed greenfield ore mining project in the country. Another project, developed by a daughter company of Assarel-Medet, is also in active construction. Both projects faced fierce opposition from all sides. In both cases, investors spent more than a decade navigating through stakeholder issues from the start of exploration to the beginning of construction. Meanwhile, numerous projects failed because they could not get their “social license to operate”. I am here to share our successes and failures together with Assarel and bring general perspective on the social stakeholder’ environment.