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UVic alumnus Georgi Ignatov, MBA ’00, who is originally from Bulgaria, built a successful supplement company. He is now helping other young entrepreneurs on their journey.

As a young person growing up in Bulgaria, Georgi Ignatov remembers feelings of self-doubt. Yet, after completing his education, including attending the ³Ô¹ÏÍø for Business, he managed to build up a successful supplement company.

Now, he wants to help other students know that they can succeed, too. He has set up a scholarship to assist international students who want to attend UVic and have a passion for entrepreneurship and environmental ³Ô¹ÏÍø.

Ignatov grew up in a small Bulgarian village of around one thousand people. His parents were engineers at the local copper mine. Ignatov set his sights on Canada and eventually found himself at UVic, earning a Master’s in Business Administration in 2000.

Ignatov considered his time at UVic to be his best educational experience. In particular, Ignatov felt extremely fortunate to be able to study under Dr. Ron Mitchell, who was part of the UVic Entrepreneurship teaching team awarded the Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy award by the Academy of Management in 2004. He credits the program with giving him the mindset to become an entrepreneur.

Ignatov put the skills learned at UVic into action, eventually creating a company called NATURELO Premium Supplements. The market for supplements at the time was mainly in synthetic products, but Ignatov found that customers were asking for natural alternatives derived from real plants rather than laboratory-made synthetic ingredients. Ignatov launched his new product in 2016 and soared to success over the next four years. By 2020, Ignatov sold NATURELO to an American company. Having succeeded in business, Ignatov decided to help others do the same. 

He began by giving back to his country of birth. “I’ve always felt connected to the country I'm from. My parents were still living there, and I felt the need to contribute back to the country that pretty much invested in my elementary and secondary education and part of university. I wanted to help other kids who, due to financial reasons, are not able to pursue their education and generally to enhance educational opportunities in Bulgaria.”

Ignatov set up the Ignatov Family Foundation, which partners with established Bulgarian charities to provide financial assistance as well as program development. This includes school renovations to make them more modern and exciting, including painting classrooms, adding wallpaper and sharing inspirational messages.

He is also helping to develop an entrepreneurship program for Bulgarian high school students, where kids get lessons on financial literacy and how to start a business. Since Bulgaria is a relatively poor country, Ignatov felt the children there could use good role models, more positive reinforcement, and to let them know that they are, truly, good enough to start a business. That faith is what can grow an economy and make a country more prosperous, he says.

Back when Ignatov was attending UVic, he remembers how approximately half of students in his MBA class were international students. Since then, fees for international students have continued to rise. He set up the Georgi Ignatov MBA in Sustainable Innovation Scholarship to specifically help international students with an interest in entrepreneurship and environmental ³Ô¹ÏÍø.

For Ignatov, the fuel for his philanthropy is the same spark that was ignited in him some 20 years ago. “The main message is just to believe in yourself that you are good enough. You are smart enough. You're not too young. You're not too inexperienced. Anybody can start their own company, and anybody can be successful.”

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