Lilyana Pavlova is a Bulgarian economist and former senior public official whose career has spanned national government, European integration and development finance. Over more than two decades she has moved between the Bulgarian cabinet and the European Investment Bank, working consistently at the intersection of infrastructure, cohesion policy and strategic investment. She now advises on innovation and development finance as a Senior Advisor at the Applied Research and Communications Fund (ARC Fund) in Sofia.

Ms Pavlova began in public administration at the Ministry of Finance, where she headed a department within the National Fund Directorate managing European pre-accession and structural funds, before being appointed Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works in 2009. She went on to lead that ministry as Minister of Regional Development and Public Works across two terms, from 2011 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2017, becoming the first woman to hold the post and overseeing national programmes in transport infrastructure, water, housing and territorial cohesion.

From 2017 to 2018 she served as Minister for the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, coordinating the organisation of Bulgaria's first rotating Presidency and its agenda on connectivity, competitiveness and the Western Balkans. In 2019 she was appointed Vice-President and a Member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank, taking up her duties that November as the first Bulgarian national on the committee; until 2023 she oversaw the Bank's operations across Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and neighbouring regions, with responsibilities spanning cohesion financing, transport, digital transformation and innovation.

Ms Pavlova holds a doctorate in economics from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, together with a master's degree in public administration and European integration and a bachelor's degree in international economic relations. In addition to her current advisory role at the ARC Fund, she has been recognised as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and received the Crans Montana Forum's 'New Leader of Tomorrow' award.