He was born in Sliven, in the south-eastern part of the Bulgarian People's Republic on 23 December 1963.
He graduated from Dobri Chintulov High School in 1981 from which he joined the Bulgarian People's Army (BNA) shortly thereafter.
In the 4 years that followed, he studied at the Vasil Levski Military All-Army University in Veliko Tarnovo specializing in Intelligence assessment before graduating in 1985.
3 years after the fall of communism in Bulgaria, he joined the newly established Bulgarian Armed Forces where he first served as a cadet in the Georgi Rakovski Military Academy.
He would serve in this position until becoming the commander of the Bulgarian Land Forces in April 2017 by order of President Rumen Radev.