Meet Our Team of Developers

Innovation Week is extended until Januar 21 - click here to see how you can get involved, and have some fun with our latest AI innovations. But first, we'll introduce the development team who work behind the scenes here at BBO.

Dimitar Nedelchev

Dimitar is our Chief Technology Officer. He's one of the newer members of the BBO family, joining in 2023. He has spent a good part of his career in gaming. He loves working on games that are fun to play and have a positive impact on people’s lives.

One of his favorite pastimes is to hit the road with no particular destination in mind. He's a true wanderer at heart.

Dimitar's favorite song is "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, and the philosophy he lives by is, "Purpose drives a meaningful life". 🌟

Yohan Pannet

Yohan Pannet our Senior Front-end Developer. He's been a valuable member of the BBO team for four years now. He loves coding and building tools and games that people enjoy to use and play.

When he's not working, Yohan enjoys playing board games, and his favorite hobby is to make things out of leather.

Yohan also is enjoying learning bridge and although he didn't play before joining BBO, he's now on a mission to improve. At this stage, he's proud owner of 0.02 BBO Points, so there's a way to go, but at least he's making headway! 📈

Watch the video here to find out more about Yohan and what he's working on BBO.

Adrien Quennessen

Adrien Joined the team two years ago and is one of our Front-end Developers. He's working on various projects, one of which is to give game features a makeover.

Adrien is a sports enthusiast, and in his free time he enjoys playing roller hockey, and sweating it out doing cross-fit. 🏒

He also enjoys to relax and play video games, and loves going out with friends and family. 🎮

Julien Serrurier

Julien is also one of our Front-end Developers. He joined the team in Februar 2021 – wow, he's hitting the three-year mark next month! What motivates Julien most is to see people having fun on BBO and he's working hard to play his part to bring the best possible gaming experience to you all.

He's part of the French BBO cycling crew. Last year they did an 800 mile ride across France, hopping from one office to the next. Lille - Paris - Sanary-sur-Mer. You can read about the adventure here 🚲

In his free time, he channels his creativity by sewing and tailoring. His goal this year is to design and make his very is own suit 🧵.

Rosen Tsankov

Rosen is also a front end developer and has been working with the crew for six months. He deals with important issues in the core systems, as well as working on new features. He's also involved in the new BBO store project. He jokingly said, "So for me, there's not much room for at the moment 😄!".

He enjoys sport in his free time, stays updated with new tech articles, and cherishes all the moment he spends with his family. He loves to soak up the vibes of a jazz café playlist and describes his life in three words, "dynamic and challenging".

Lorand Dali

Lorand joined the team in Juli 2023, and he's the go-to guy for coding on the BBO server. He's better known though for his work on our AI Bridge Engine though and for making cool things behind the scenes. Outside work, Lorand's all about family time, playing bridge, checking out YouTube videos, and enjoying a good stroll. Lorand and the team recently introduced an AI Bridge Engine, designed to play more like humans than a traditional bot. It looks like the bot picked up a few unwanted quirks from the humans it was trained on, and in a few rare cases left before completing the last trick of the hand. He said, "some users thought the robot had learned the bad habit of refusing to play when it was getting a bad result!" 😄

Watch this video to find out more about his responsibilities at BBO and his involvement in the AI projects.

Barry Margolin

Barry has been part of the BBO team for over 12 years, joining in Oktober 2011. He works as a System Programmer. His work involves keeping the technical gears running smoothly in the background of BBO, mostly handling software maintenance on the back-end. When he's not diving into his tasks, Barry is enjoying two of his favorite pastimes: watching TV and playing bridge.

He's not just a behind-the-scenes guy—Barry actively participates in bridge games, both online and offline. Offline, he's been playing with the same partner for over 20 years, a bond forged at the MIT/Draper Labs Bridge Club. On BBO, he's got a regular Samstag night date that's been going strong for around two decades with a different partner, a woman he met at an NABC in the '80s.

He's rocking an impressive award symbol in his BBO profile (he reached 85!). He mentioned, "Opponents are sometimes intimidated because they see my symbol in the 80s, and they've never seen that high before—they don't realize the royals are even higher". 🏆

Maud Remoriquet

Maud, the team's queen, works as a PHP/Symfony Developer. She has been a lively part of the BBO team for two years, bringing both skills and a cheerful personality. Described as cute, funny, a bit shy, and as sweet as a peach! She loves working on our AI Bridge Engines, her favorite is Argine, the one that can play with ACOL or SEF conventions. She also really enjoys coding in PHP.

She's involved in the organization of AFUP convention (the French PHP user association). Maud's mission as part of the group is to spread the knowledge about PHP and other technologies.

In her free time, she enjoys playing video games and watching anime. She also admits to rocking out at concerts on occasions! 🎸🎶

Damien Merchier

Damien works as a Symfony Developer at BBO. He joined the team in Februar 2022, bringing his skills and love for innovation to the team. One of his standout contributions was working on the new AI Bridge Engine, Ben. He's all about pushing the envelope in innovation, tackling cool stuff, making things faster, more secure, and reliable.

One big win for Damien was moving the Gib robot to AWS Cloud setup. This change makes it more robust, faster, and safer. It's like a superhighway for adding new features without a hitch. Damien also played a part in rolling out Ben, during our innovation week. He's fixing the morning slowdowns and making sure of top-notch performance and reliability.

Beyond the tech world, you'll catch him enjoying sport and cheering for his favorite rugby team in his free time. 🏉

Gerardo Esteban Malazdrewicz

Gerardo is a BBO veteran who joined us back in Mai 2001 when BBO was just getting started. In those early days, setting up a table at night meant waiting for that fourth player to join in! He works as a Sysadmin.

Originally from Argentina, Gerardo involved in a genuine online love story. He met his wife right here on BBO, and their connection led him to move to Canada, where his love lives.

Before the Canada adventure, Gerardo connected with some Polish friends, who had found him on account of his last name. Now he's visited them a few times, he's well and truly expanded his global circle of friends.

Bridge is more than a game for Gerardo; it's a lifestyle. Most of his trips, whether short or long, revolve around the world of bridge. And when he's not strategizing at the bridge table, you might find him making moves on a chessboard or engrossed in a good read.📚

Stoyan Stoyanov

Sto joined the team about 7 months ago. He finds joy in something called iTerm2. It's his digital playground, where he gets to explore and have fun.

His philosophy shines through: "today is better than yesterday". He loves spending quality time with his kids and on that point, he's not just a computer whiz at work. He's also a pro at teaching computer science to kids, especially his own!

When he's got free time, he enjoys knife throwing, archery (without the hunting part!), long rides on his electric mountain bike, and having motocross and enduro adventures.

If he had to pick one song to listen to for the rest of his life, it would be "Might Be" by D3szn, Day Sulan, Mitch, and YG. In his words, "at this moment in time, I could play it on repeat for the rest of my life!" 🎶

Georgi Parvanov

Georgi is our BBO maestro from Bulgaria. He's been working his magic on BBO since 2003. He's the guy behind cool stuff like PHP programming, SQL, and keeping things running smoothly. He enjoys playing with GIB, programing and tuning their "brains" to be even smarter. He's also the mastermind behind automating the Weekly IT promos, organizing the BBOers Monthly Festivals, and setting up Geo combats, which allows us to have fun competing for our country.

In his downtime, Georgi rules his own Queendom at home, with five strong ladies and a newly crowned prince who was born very recently! He's also a Tournament Director at bridge events.

Georgi is a traveler at heart, and he loves connecting with other BBO crews. He travelled with Diana, Sanya, and Aurora into a mountain trip near Dracula's castle. He also enjoyed a lovely trip to Strasbourg, where he had an unforgettable dinner with Alexandra, Diana, Eva, and Uday.

He taking this chance to get in touch with his BBO friends and team mates, "Hold tight Barry and Gerardo – get ready for our meeting, probably across the ocean! 🌊😊"