Teodora Kaneva

"As an ‘Explorer’, Teodora’s curiosity helps her to achieve a broad spectrum of skills and knowledge. She is also collaborative and empathetic, which makes her very approachable and means she is good at communicating with colleagues – showing her ‘Communicator’ type. As an ‘Innovator’, she loves being imaginative and creative, and collaborating with people from academia and with innovators."

"As the Programme Manager of Energy & Utilities and the Internet of Things, Teodora finds herself managing two industries that are different but also interconnected. She uses research and intuition to identify regulatory gaps and responds to consultations about policy-making. She also engages with stakeholders and tries to understand business models and challenges in order to maximise benefits and profits. She sits on a variety of boards and groups where she represents her company and their members.Each day, Teodora reads and analyses news articles, reports and regulatory documents. She then tweets and writes insights and articles, publishes blogs, communicates with members and organises working groups. She really enjoys gaining knowledge and meeting new people. The highlight of Teodora’s career has been pitching to a room full of the biggest players in the electric vehicle industry, to gain a seat at the Electric Vehicle Energy Task Force, which will inform legislation next year!"

"Teodora did a master’s in Energy, and had a full scholarship for this. After that, she worked in lobbying in a renewable energy association where she did business development focusing on the business and stakeholder engagement. She then managed two renewable energy start-ups which gave her a broad knowledge of the industry and regulatory issues within the energy sector as a whole. This experience really challenged some of Teodora’s more traditional thinking about what is possible and how innovation works. She started being more and more curious, especially about innovation in technology. Being financially constrained and having issues with staffing pushed her to explore more options such as collaboration with academia and other companies. She then started working for an innovation agency which focussed on innovation in health, mobility, and infrastructure within local and central government. This led Teodora back to the energy sector but with a good over-arching view of the whole infrastructure. Teodora’s starting salary was €30,000 or about £27,000."

"Teodora loves art and design and so tries to visit museums and art shows as much as possible. She also loves traveling to experience different cultures and learn about their history, food, and lives. She really enjoys being active and spending time outdoors, and tries to go hiking when possible. She also does yoga and swimming, goes to the gym and does ballet for fitness. Teodora is also a ballroom champion and can shoot and fence!"