Stefan Ivanov, born in 1972, works in finance. He and his wife, Zheni Ivanova, have two children—Maxim (21 years old, a student at Stanford) and Lara (19 years old, a student at Durham).

Stefan is passionate about endurance challenges in nature, such as mountain ultra-marathons like Pirin Ultra (70km), Lavaredo (87km), UTMB-PTL (300km), as well as Ironman competitions, swimming across the English Channel, and mountain bike races like Vitosha (100km).

Together with his son Maxim, he built the rowing boat NEVEREST in their garage and rowed across the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Stefan also crossed the Southern Ocean with four other rowers. He believes that the greater the obstacles and storms one faces while pursuing a goal, the greater the satisfaction upon achieving it. Stefan is the leader and co-skipper of the expedition. In 2025 Stefan co-skippered the UNTAMED expedition that rowed 4,556 nautical miles (recorded track) across the Indian Ocean from Australia to Africa in 65 days.