After a month-long campaign and a runoff in many major cities, Bulgarians have elected their leaders in the 2023 local elections. Vassil Terziev (’01) will be the new mayor of Sofia, with 48.2% of residents of the capital supporting the AUBG alumnus. At home in Blagoevgrad, lawyer and former AUBG professor Metodi Baykushev earned 50.21% of the votes.
Terziev graduated AUBG cum laude in 2001 with a degree in Business Administration. He co-founded and served as co-CEO of Telerik, a Bulgarian IT company which Progress Software acquired for $262.5 million in 2014. Following the acquisition, he and his partners founded Telerik Academy and Campus X to continue nurturing Bulgaria’s booming entrepreneurial ecosystem.
As an alumnus, he has remained an ardent supporter of AUBG by serving on the Board of Trustees, contributing to the scholarship fund and mentoring participants in the Elevate startup accelerator.
Terziev officially announced his run for mayor in June. He ran as part of local coalition United for Sofia, consisting of parties We Continue the Change, Democratic Bulgaria and Save Sofia. Among the priorities of his campaign are the development of local schools, decentralization to allow for the development of all regions of the capital and digitalisation of the municipal administration.
“I believe that together we can turn Sofia into a city we can live well in, a home where our children choose to stay, a place where young people can succeed,” he said in his campaign statement.
Blagoevgrad’s new leader Metodi Baykushev will head the city after a nearly 20-year career as a lawyer. Born and raised in Blagoevgrad, he spent the past few years speaking out on local issues through his social media channels before launching his mayoral run in July. He ran as a candidate from We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria. At AUBG, he taught Business Law for four semesters in 2017 and 2018.
“I will dedicate all my energy, knowledge and experience, and prove that Blagoevgrad can be a modern European center of Southwest Bulgaria,” Baykushev said in a statement. “I believe the best is yet to come.”
