Victoria Entwistle Elected Deputy Chair of the AUBG Board of Trustees
Victoria Entwistle, Managing Director, Magnolia Advisory, London, was appointed new Deputy Chair of the AUBG Board of Trustees and Elvin Guri (‘96) and Jenik Radon were elected new members of the Board. All decisions were taken during the regular board meeting on campus Oct. 11-13.
Victoria Entwistle has been on the AUBG Board of Trustees for four years now. She has been the Chair of the Investment Committee (overseeing the Endowment) for the last two years. She has extensive experience as a financial and M&A advisor to a wide variety of companies. She holds an MBA degree from INSEAD.
This is the second time that Elvin Guri, CEO of Empower Capital Fund, joins the AUBG Board of Trustees. He is among the university’s largest donors, founding president of the AUBG Alumni Association and has taught at AUBG on both graduate and undergraduate levels.
Jenik Radon is Adjunct Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, Columbia University, where he teaches in the area of sustainable natural resource development with a focus on risk and strategic management, sovereignty and human rights, especially the environment, minority rights (including social license) and anti-corruption.
The Open Session Resolutions Oct. 13 gathered together students, faculty, staff and board members who discussed the major developments at the university. Daniel Tomov (‘97), University Council Chair and Founding Partner at Eleven Ventures, announced that the funds needed to launch the AUBG Accelerator had been collected. The AUBG Accelerator is a four-month experience and mentorship-based program designed to help students start a business. During the program, the participating teams will have access to workshops, training and a mentorship network comprised of experienced entrepreneurs and AUBG alumni. Each team will get $5000 as capital to kick-start their development.
The Admissions team reported a successful year with 242 full-time students and 32 exchange students coming from over 20 countries and the possibility to tap into new regions such as Turkey, Morocco and Egypt.
During the weekend, AUBG also hosted the Nature’s Awakening exhibition that showcased the works of artists Anne de Colbert-Christophorov and Elena Panayotova.
“As I am looking at these beautiful paintings, I am reminded that we have to seek the art in everything we do,” said AUBG Interim President David Evans. “Art has many forms and expressions. So does AUBG – with its diverse, multicultural community. And art builds bridges just like AUBG does – we take pride in educating the global ethical leaders of tomorrow.”
“As far as I know, students from more than 80 nationalities have studied in this university,” said Anne de Colbert-Christophorov. “I do wish you to continue your endeavors always and forever in this spirit of change. Hopefully, the world will find the right spirit to live in peace, happiness and love.” Anne de Colbert-Christophorov generously donated one of her paintings to the university and announced that a percentage of each sale will go towards the university funds.
Elena Panayotova also stressed on the importance of diversity and mutual respect. “Art is a way to communicate,” she said. “Art creates a community and contact between different cultures.”
Anne de Colbert-Christophorov (b. 1936) is a French magic realist artist. She fell in love with Bulgaria and its people through her husband, prominent doctor Boyan Christophorov. Her poetic, cheerful and nostalgic painting is a swirl of colors that appeals to the heart and remains accessible. Oil painting is her all-time favorite technique; she has also created watercolors, pastels, gouaches. Beyond canvas, she has painted on woods, walls, clocks. She has created tapestries, poems and sculptures.
Elena Panayotova (b. 1964) is a Bulgarian painter and conceptual artist. She graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia in 1989 and has since had over 25 solo exhibitions in Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Macedonia, France and other countries. The subject of identity is vital in her work. Her attitude towards the contemporary world and the sincere way she expresses it may push the audience away at first but then engages the viewers and makes them think. She works in the fields of drawing, painting, objet d’art, installation and photography.