Veselin Todorov teaches in City University in Athens, however he was also the chancellor of the European college until 2003. He settles in Greece in the beginning of the ‘90s together with his wife who is Greek and is the main reason for him to be working in the field of scientific and research activities because Veso starts his career as a journalist – he was the youngest chief editor of a newspaper at the end of the 80s in Bulgaria. However Veso Todorov is currently successfully combining his academic career with the business – he is one of the founders of the consulting agency “Institute for corporate development” in Sofia. Marina Nikolova covers the story of his success…

What is the most interesting thing which Veselin Todorov would chose to present himself with?

I was the chief editor for the newspaper “Polet” – the Varna youth newspaper. Together with the team we created between the years of 1986 – 1990 we made the newspaper become one of the three legal publications supporting the publicity of the reshuffle of Bulgaria. The other two were “Narodna Kultura” by Stefan Prodev and the Plovdiv youth newspaper “Komsomolska iskra”, while Velislava Dareva was still there. I graduated journalism in 1984 in the Leningrad University. When we established the paper we were publishing things which we ourselves did not believe could be published – at that time the word “reshuffle” in Bulgaria was not allowed.

Was it easy for you to adjust when you first came in Greece?

It is not easy for anybody to change drastically the environment. The encirclement, the country, the culture, the language… A producer from the Greek channel Alfa offered me to become the subject of a documentary for five emigrants who live in Greece. It was supposed to be broadcasted in the show “Time machine”. I explained to him that I am not really suitable for this because – as opposed to the other people – I had no such difficulties and destitutions as they had to face. My way was also difficult, but in another way. I did not pass illegally through the mountain in the winter snow and storm. However it is not at all something small to leave behind a social statute like the one I had managed to achieve in Bulgaria. Because of my political activity I had not only professional, but also social status as well as the professional circles and friends, family, house etc.

However you did manage good, didn’t you?

Even though a person goes in a country he doesn’t really know, the first thing that person should take into consideration is that he cannot practice his profession because he doesn’t speak the language. The second – he doesn’t know anybody, which means he cannot count on almost anybody but himself. And me, after at the age of 32 I was the youngest chief editor in Bulgaria at the age of 34- 35 I had to start from scratch. Then my wife gave me an idea, which never before crossed my mind. Since when we were still students, she and my director of studies were telling me that I have to do scientific work. I however was claiming that I was born to work in the field of journalism and my strength is in the writing, in the media… In Greece I had to change the frequency and see what I can do under these circumstances.

I started from the American University which in 1991 was the biggest one and I started to look for my place in the new encirclement. Then was the time I understood something which I wouldn’t have been able to understand if I had stayed in Bulgaria – I started to understand my own value. Because a person can understand his own value only when you are in a completely new encirclement and you have to prove who you are and what you can do. And it turned out that there are things I can count on. In 1995 I started my cooperation with the European College, in the next year I became a director and I stayed at that position until 2003. For ten years now I cooperate with City University, in the last five of them very actively. I am a member of the academic council of the university, which is located in the office in Seattle. City University is a network of universities in Canada, America, Mexico, Europe, China and is still growing. In Bulgaria it also has a branch – the campus is located in Pravetz and in the business park in Sofia are the master programs.

If Bulgarian students want to come and study in a Greek university would you encourage them to do it

The public and the private universities are two different worlds. The Greek public universities are a rather confused institution, which stands in their way to develop the potential that they have. The Greek academic potential is enormous – only in the USA there are 6 000 Greeks teaching in American universities. And if we add Europe and Australia, they will probably add up to 20 000 people. This is a great potential – people, who work in all levels in dozens of research centers however for a number of reasons the educational system did not use them – it is a rather closed system. One of its main goals is to preserve the status quo and the quality of the education is constantly dropping. There are strikes all the time and universities are being occupied. The private universities in Greece are a franchise of foreign universities, which means that their programs are British, American, French. This means that what we do in City University is not in any way different that what our colleagues in Seattle do. 

Is there any difference in the fees between Bulgaria and Greece?

There is – a masters program, which you can graduate for two years here would cost you about 10 000 euro. Most of the students choose this option because they work.

Are there a lot of Bulgarians here?

No unfortunately there aren’t. Because of all these reason which existed until two years ago – the problems they were facing with the visas. Now this is no longer a problem which means they could go wherever they want, including here. However now they need the respective available funds.

Is there a campus?

We now built a campus for our university – for the students who come from abroad. We also have cooperation with dozens of American universities on the east coast, from where a lot of students are coming for one semester only which means that twice a year we have groups of 30 – 40 students coming. For them this is a great opportunity to live in a completely different culture. And since this is interesting for the Americans why wouldn’t it be interesting for the Bulgarians?! Many of the Bulgarian students are studying business regardless of where they are. Why not come here?!

A research just came out saying that the Greek students abroad are the most numerous compared to the population of the country. How would you comment on this fact?

It speaks for itself. In Great Britain there are 25 000 Greek students – the second biggest group after the Chinese. My explanation? Lack of trust on the part of the students in the educational system on one side and the incapability of the educational system to use properly the local talents.

This is pity…

Of course. Countries like ours – Bulgaria and Greece – have nothing else to count on. To count on our natural resources? On our energy resources? On our centuries old industry? Or on our vast territories and populations? As opposed to us the Greeks have a large Diaspora – 18 million people live outside. And what Diaspora do the Bulgarians have? Such nations can only count on their brains – the main capital which is also the capital of the 21t century. And a culture, a country which manages to utilize them acquires a strategically good position compared to the rest. Let us take for example Finland, which wins its independence in 1918. In 1991 70- 80% of its resources depended on the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union the unemployment in Finland reaches 20% and last year it was announced to be the country with the best developed economy. What natural resources does it have besides the lumber?! And a population of 5,5 million. However they started to invest in the brains and they have one of the best educational systems in the world – starting with the kindergarten and ending with the doctors programs. 

Each educational system is a mirror of the society. If it has decided to destroy itself, then the hit on the educational system will be the death strike of the society. Here at the Balkans we do not value our talents and we have not yet understood that the society is successful only when its talents succeed.

Now we are trying to discover the secret of success… How does a person develops himself?

It is not appreciated what you create nor the meaning and the significance of the intellectual product. The membership in the EU is a great opportunity, it is not an automatic solving of our problems. If we don’t manage to understand this it means we have learned nothing at all from the past and again we are waiting for somebody else to do our job. It was nice when for 45 years we were receiving free resources from the Soviet Union. Now again we are waiting to get the money of the EU.

It may sound rather pessimistic what we are talking about, however the pessimism ends when you realize the reality. When you realize what is you strategic advantage – you invest in it and you come out of the pond little by little. We have to appreciate our own value and do something right – more or less as much as we can whatever we can. At a conference in 1997 of Shell its vice president said that in today’s world of knowledge there are no big and small companies in terms of size, but there are organizations which know more and organizations which know less. And this refers to every field of the public life. There is no vacuum – you either succeed or you don’t, however if you don’t take a chance, how would you succeed? This is how I see the things.

What do you exactly do now in the scientific area?

Everything I learned and I am still learning I try to apply in my business. I have a company with Greek and Bulgarian partners in Sofia – “Institute for corporative development”. This is a consultancy company in the field of education, energy and corporate development. My life is everything I teach my students to put in practice, however my principle is to do what I say.

Can you make a forecast on how we will exit the economic crisis?

The world crisis did not start in September – smart people were talking about it two or three years ago. In 2006 a Nobel price winner had outlined the contours of the crisis. In such cases we have to ask ourselves one question – who wins? When somebody loses, another person wins. When many people lose, somebody wins a lot. The battle today is not for our pockets, but for our minds. When you have control over the mind you have control over the pocket. And the pocket now is much deeper than it was a hundred years ago. If you are brain washed it would be very easy to reach into your pocket and take what you have. Things are not at all pink, however we also have a greater chance. A chance to change something, to not be sheep.