Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees of the American College of Sofia is comprised of remarkable individuals with various connections to ACS and Bulgaria. The Board is academically, geographically, demographically and professionally diverse, with service tenures ranging from one to 42 years. New trustee election occurs by nomination, rigorous vetting, and a vote of the full Board. All trustees are volunteers who receive no compensation for their work or reimbursement for travel to board meetings.

A set of corporate bylaws govern the Board’s operations. Board meetings occur eight times during the school year, in Sofia, the United States and virtually. Seven committees complement the work of the ACS Board: Alumni and Development, Campus Infrastructure and Technology, Education and Strategy, Executive, Finance and Investments, Human Resources, and Nominating and Governance.

The corporate entity funding and operating ACS, Sofia American Schools, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) non-profit institution, exempt from income taxes in the United States, and chartered in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1926.

Elected Board officers in 2022-2023 are:

Theodora Konetsovska, Chair
Samuel Seymour, Vice Chair
Katherine Georgiev, Treasurer
David Bliss Wilson, Secretary

Written inquiries can be made to the Board’s administrative office at: Sofia American Schools, i/c/o Eisikovic & Kane, LLP, 1430 Broadway, Suite 1105, New York, NY 10018.

Meet the Trustees

Theodora Konetsovska '97

CHAIR OF THE BOARD, Trustee since 2012
  • Bachelor of Arts, Williams College

Ms. Konetsovska’s professional experiences include investment banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York City, with a focus on interest rate derivatives and bond issuance for private universities and non-profit healthcare systems, as well as treasury management and strategic planning work in the office of the CFO at Harvard University.

Ms. Konetsovska resides in the Boston (MA) area with her husband and two sons.

Sam Seymour

Vice Chair of the Board; Trustee since 2018
  • Bachelor of Arts, Dartmouth College; Juris Doctor, Columbia Law School

Mr. Seymour retired as a partner of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in 2019, and continues to practice at the firm in the field of white collar criminal defense and investigations. Mr. Seymour has also served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the US Justice Department, and as President of the New York City Bar Association.

Mr. Seymour resides in Brooklyn (NY) with his wife.

Katherine Georgiev

Treasurer, Trustee Since 2020
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of California, Davis; Master of Arts in Education Administration, Santa Clara University

Ms. Georgiev is a secondary school educator and currently serves as the principal of an all-girls independent, college preparatory secondary school in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Her previous professional experience was in management consulting at Accenture and she also served as a policy intern within the National Economic Council of The White House.  

Ms. Georgiev resides in San Jose (CA) with her husband, an ACS alumnus, and three children.

David Bliss Wilson

Secretary, Trustee since 2014
  • Bachelor of Arts, Amherst College; Juris Doctor, Northeastern University School of Law

Mr. Wilson is a founding partner at Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP in Boston, a law firm specializing in management side labor & employment law and litigation.

Mr. Wilson’s grandfather Howard H. Bliss taught English at ACS in the period 1938-42, and his mother attended ACS in first grade. Mr. Wilson resides in Acton (MA) with his family.

Vesselin Arnaudov '01

Trustee since 2023
  • Bachelor of Arts, Brown University

Mr. Arnaudov is a director of engineering leading the regional center for new incubation and research activities at VMware. Prior to that, Mr. Arnaudov developed experience in software engineering and startup life, including early explorations of distributed sensor networks in smart buildings.

Mr. Arnaudov resides in Sofia with his wife (ACS class of ’99) and three kids.

Frank Bauer

Trustee since 2022
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Iowa; Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Mr. Bauer is involved with various youth and educational institutions, including the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, Providence St. Mel School, Elgin Math and Science Academy, and ASSIST. From 1991 to 2012, Mr. Bauer served as President and CEO and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund and its successor, the America for Bulgaria Foundation. Mr. Bauer was awarded the Order of the Madara Horseman by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for the work of these organizations.

Mr. Bauer resides in Chicago with his wife.

Avis T. Bohlen

Trustee since 2002
  • Bachelor of Arts, Radcliffe College; Master of Arts, Columbia University

Ms. Bohlen is a former U.S. diplomat who served as the 32nd United States Ambassador to Bulgaria from 1996 to 1999. Previously, she was Assistant Secretary for Arms Control from 1999 to 2002.

Ms. Bohlen resides in Washington (DC) with her husband.

Karen Collias

Trustee since 2018
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Minnesota; Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University

Ms. Collias is an independent consultant and founder of Knowledge Without Borders, a fund dedicated to expanding socio-economic diversity in education by connecting creativity and philanthropy. Ms. Collias has a background in comparative politics and education with a focus on Eastern Europe and Russia.

Ms. Collias resides with her husband in Yardley (PA), New York City (NY), and Shanghai (China).

Christopher Dell

Trustee since 2022
  • Bachelor of Arts, Columbia University; M.Phil, Oxford University

Mr. Dell was a career U.S. diplomat and served as Ambassador to Angola, Zimbabwe and Kosovo. Among his other postings he was the deputy chief of mission in Bulgaria. Since retiring from the Foreign Service, Mr. Dell has worked for Bechtel Corporation.  He is currently a consultant for Fieldstone, a private investment bank and transaction advisor, serves as a director of Sicona Battery Technology, an Australian start-up, and consults for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mr. Dell lives in Washington, D.C., with his Bulgarian-born wife, but divides his time between there, Portugal and Bulgaria.

Nellie Gencheva Gipson

Trustee since 2004
  • Bachelor of Arts, Hunter College New York; Master of Arts, New York University

Ms. Gipson is an arts management professional. Currently she devotes her time to art and education philanthropy in New York City and Cooperstown, NY.

Ms. Gipson resides in New York City (NY) with her husband.

Valentin Georgiev

Trustee since 2011
  • Master of Laws, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski; Pew Economic Freedom Fellow Program, Georgetown University

Mr. Georgiev has over 15 years of experience in the private sector as an attorney at law, and in civil service as secretary general of the Bulgarian Parliament (1997-2001) and general secretary of Bulgaria’s Central Election Committee. He served as executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria for 14 years (2002-2016). He serves now as secretary general of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Mr. Georgiev is the proud parent of an ACS alumna, and resides in Sofia (Bulgaria).

Nedko Kyuchukov '03

Trustee since 2013
  • Bachelor of Arts, Dartmouth College; Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Mr. Kyuchukov is a public equity investor at Generation Investment Management. His previous professional experience was as a long/short equity investor at hedge fund Westray Capital Management, private equity and distressed debt investor at TPG Capital, and investment banker at J.P. Morgan and Lazard.

Mr. Kyuchukov resides in London (United Kingdom) with his wife.

Tom Marshall

Trustee since 2019
  • Bachelor of Arts, Hamilton College; Master of Education, Harvard University Graduate School of Education; Master of International Affairs, Columbia University

Mr. Marshall is Executive Director of Teaching & Learning at Stamford American International School in Singapore. Mr. Marshall served as Faculty Development Coordinator at ACS from 2013 through 2016, and has worked as a teacher and administrator at schools in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States.

Mr. Marshall resides in Singapore.

Marcie Ries

Trustee since 2016
  • Bachelor of Arts, Oberlin College; Master of International Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Ms. Ries spent thirty-seven years as an American diplomat, including postings in Belgium, Turkey, the UK, Kosovo, Iraq, and Albania. From 2012 to 2015, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to Bulgaria.

Ms. Ries resides in Washington (DC).

Boris Statev '03

Trustee since 2022
  • Bachelor of Science, Lehigh University

Mr. Statev manages credit risk in emerging markets at Apple. His previous professional experience includes debt investment, and M&A and financing advisory in both banks and advisory boutiques. He started his career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Statev resides in London (United Kingdom) with his wife, an ACS alumna, and their two children.

Borislav Stefanov '97

Trustee since 2018
  • Bachelor of Arts, American University in Bulgaria; Master of International Management, Regent’s University London; Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

Mr. Stefanov is a management consultant and founder of Hilltop 34 Boutique Advisory. Mr. Stefanov’s professional background includes positions in the automotive industry (Daimler AG), management consulting (BCG), and private equity, as well as a four-year period with InvestBulgaria, a government agency attracting and supporting multinational companies in Bulgaria.

Mr. Stefanov resides in Sofia (Bulgaria) with his wife.

Joel F. Studebaker

Trustee since 1980
  • Bachelor of Science, Stanford University; Doctor of Philosophy, Harvard University

Mr. Studebaker is retired from a career in software development and biomedical research. He has published a number of papers on chemical analysis and blood processing, and he worked most recently in clinical data analysis at Johnson & Johnson.

Mr. Studebaker’s original connections to ACS came through his father-in-law, who taught English at ACS from 1938 to 1942, and through ACS President Floyd Black, whom he met in graduate school. Mr. Studebaker resides in Princeton (NJ).

Trayan Trayanov '01

Trustee since 2017
  • Bachelor of Arts, Harvard College; Master of Philosophy, University of Cambridge

Mr. Trayanov is the Chief Executive Officer of Teach for Bulgaria (Фондация "Заедно в час"), a non-profit organization working to ensure equitable access to quality education for every child in Bulgaria.

Mr. Trayanov resides in Sofia (Bulgaria) with his wife and two sons.

 

Roger Whitaker

Former Chair of the Board (2011-2018), Trustee since 1990
  • Bachelor of Arts, Heidelberg University; Master of Arts, Boston University; Doctor of Philosophy, Boston University

During his 1994-2017 tenure at The George Washington University, Dr. Whitaker served as a professor, dean, associate vice president, and founding dean of the school’s College of Professional Studies. In 1991-92, he spearheaded the reopening of the American College of Sofia, and became ACS’s first President from 1992 to 1994.

Mr. Whitaker lived in Bulgaria for ten months in 1975-76 when he conducted research for his Ph.D. dissertation. Mr. Whitaker lives in the Washington (DC) area with his wife.

William J. Williams, Jr.

Former Chair of the Board (2004-2011), Trustee since 1990
  • Bachelor of Arts, College of the Holy Cross; Bachelor of Laws, New York University School of Law

Mr. Williams has been an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP in New York City since 1962, including partner from 1969 to 2004 and Of Counsel since.

Mr. Williams resides in New York City (NY).