Nadia Shabani is a Director of the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL). She has worked in the organization since its establishment in 2001 until 2009, and came back to BCNL in 2012. Within BCNL she works on issues such as establishment of NGOs, public-private partnerships, good governance and social contracting. She provides assistance to public officials on central and local level, lawyers, professional groups, parental organizations and social service providers for developing policies, strategic documents, drafting legislation changes and impact assessments in social area.

In 2009, Nadia became the chair of the National Agency for Child Protection in Bulgaria, responsible for the enforcement of children rights and coordination of all government policies in the area. As the head of this agency she was in charge of the coordination of all measures and programs in the plan for the deinstitutionalization of children in Bulgaria, accepted in 2010 and funded by the EU (100,000,000 euro for the first 4 years).

Nadia has an M.A. degree from the Law Faculty in Sofia University and specialization in International Law and international organizations.

Desislava graduated from Sofia University with an MA in English Philology. She started work in the civil
society sector while still at university. She has nearly 30 years of experience in the largest domestic human rights organisation the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, where she was in charge of fundraising before public and private donors, programme and project management, as well as taking part in some of the organisation’s monitoring projects involving vulnerable groups. In September 2023 she joined the team of the Bulgarian Centre for Non-Profit Law as a programme director.

Zahari Iankov is a legal consultant in BCNL where he works since October 2019. Zahari has LLM from the University of Sofia “st. Kliment Ohridski” and a master in Democracy and Human Rights in Southeast Europe (ERMA) with a double degree from the University of Sarajevo and University of Bologna.
In his daily work, Zahari supports citizens and civic organizations through consultations on the
legal framework and procedures for the initial registration, re-registration and registration of
changes of non-profit legal entities, prepares legal documents and opinions. Zahari is also
responsible for the weekly monitoring of the Bulgarian legislat

Radina Banova-Stoeva is a lawyer, registered with the Sofia Bar Association since 2019. She graduated
from Sofia University in Sofia in 2016 with a Master’s degree in Law. In 2020 she graduated from the
Master’s degree program “Organizational Behavior and Counseling” at the Faculty of Philosophy of Sofia
University “St. Kliment Kliment”. She is also a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at the
University of Sofia.

She has been working as a legal consultant at the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law since
September 2018. Her interests fall in the field of human rights, supported decision-making and justice.
She has previous experience in the field of volunteering and youth policy in delivering peer-led
programmes and trainings. Provides legal advice to non-profits and individuals, prepares legal analyses
and opinions, conducts training, and monitors legislation.

Uses English and German.

Alexander Kirov is a Master of Business administration and Digital marketing as well as Public Relations specialist, francophone with degrees from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. His professional career began with an internship as an editor in the American issue for street culture – Vice magazine. He entered the non-profit sector in 2014, over the years working on topics related to children’s rights, fighting human trafficking, short cinema, cultural events and more. His strengths are creating social awareness campaigns, digital marketing campaigns, photography, and visual arts. He also has interests in the arts of crafts, graphic design, and music as a means of communication. Currently Alexander oversees all digital communications, design and marketing initiatives in Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law and Shtrak social enterprise.

Iveta is a journalist by profession, with experience in leading TV media. She holds a BA in Public Relations
and an MA in Political Management from Sofia University. Iveta started her career at the Bulgarian
National Television, and then worked as a reporter in News and Current Affairs at NOVA TV. She
developed her career as a Digital Marketing Specialist in Retail, but her true passion for working for the
benefit of society brought her back to working with a cause. Video and audio content editing and writing
have been a part of her entire career path, and she later started to dabble in design. She joined the BCNL
team in November 2022 and holds the position of Communications Expert.