Aleksandar Trifonov Tomov ( bg, Александър Трифонов Томов) (born 27 April 1954) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n politician, economist, and academic.

Biography

Education

In the 1970s, Tomov was a student at the UNWE and

Leningrad University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

. He completed his primary, secondary and university education with excellent marks. In 1984, Tomov earned a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in the field of

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. Tomov has made specializations in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

macroeconomics Macroeconomics (from the Greek prefix ''makro-'' meaning "large" + ''economics'') is a branch of economics dealing with performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. For example, using interest rates, taxes, and ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Academic career

In addition to his political career, Tomov has also worked as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

and lecturer in the

department (of which he is one of the founders in 1985) at

Sofia University Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

. He has further taught courses at the Karl Marx Institute of Economics in

. Tomov has authored six books. In 1995, Tomov was appointed as the director of the EastWest Institute in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for a period of three years.

Politics

In 1990, Tomov was elected to the 7th Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria as a member of the

Bulgarian Socialist Party The Bulgarian Socialist Party ( bg, Българска социалистическа партия, translit=Balgarska sotsialisticheska partiya, BSP), also known as The Centenarian ( bg, Столетницата, links=no, translit=Stoletnitsat ...

. He was also a member of the 36th and 38th National Parliaments. Tomov served as Deputy-

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

in the

Dimitar Popov Dimitar Nikolaev Popov ( bg, Димитър Николаев Попов; born 27 February 1970) is a former Bulgarian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career In his career Popov played for Levski Sofia, Botev Plovdiv, Sparta ...

government, the first one since the collapse of the communist system in 1989. In 1993, he established the Citizens' Union for the Republic (Bulgarian: Гражданско обединение за републиката), which was initially not envisioned as a political party. However, it evolved into the

Bulgarian Euro-Left The Bulgarian Euro-Left ( bg, Българска Евролевица, translit=Bulgarska Evrolevitsa; BEL) is a pro-Western social-democratic political party in Bulgaria. The party was established on 22 February 1997 in Sofia. The party was for ...

in 1997. Tomov was formerly vice-chairman of the supreme council (Bulgarian: Висш съвет) of the

and was among the founders of the

in 1997, eventually being elected (and reelected in 2000) as its leader after receiving more votes than his main opponent Elena Poptodorova. The Euro-Left officially became a political party in 1998. He has been critical of the delayed social democratization of the BSP party in the 1990s. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, Tomov was a candidate to become

President of Bulgaria The president of the Republic of Bulgaria is the head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or ...

(with Lyudmil Marinchevski as his running mate) and finished in fourth place, earning 3.16% of the votes cast. Since 2003, Tomov has been the leader of the Bulgarian Social Democracy party. In 2013, his party expressed support for the "Bulgarian Spring" (Bulgarian: Българска пролет) protest movement.

Kremikovtzi AD

In 2009, Tomov came under legal scrutiny due to allegedly abusing his position during his time as chairman of the managerial board of Kremikovtzi. In early 2011, the Sofia City Court found Tomov guilty of allegedly siphoning off money (15 million

leva Leva may refer to: * Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian currency * ''Leva'' (grasshopper), a genus of insects * Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies o ...

) from Kremikovtzi, imposing a prison sentence. In 2013, the Appellate Court decided that the case needs a review and returned it to the court of first instance, with the trial recommencing in April 2014. In February 2015, the Sofia City Court declared Tomov not culpable.

Sport

Tomov is also well known for his involvement in various capacities with the

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

football club. He was instrumental in bringing

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n businessman

Pramod Mittal Pramod Mittal (born 1 September 1956) is an Indian businessman who was the chairman of Ispat Industries Limited (now JSW Ispat Steel). Pramod Mittal is also the younger brother of Lakshmi Mittal. He spent $82 million on his daughter's we ...

in relation to a number of Kremikovtzi deals. Mittal eventually became the owner of the "armymen" in December 2006 before selling the club to Titan Sport EAD in early 2009. Tomov served as the president of

between 5 December 2006 and 5 June 2008 as well as from July 2008 to 9 April 2009. In the summer of 2008, Tomov was blamed by some sections of the reds' supporters due to the team not receiving a license for European club competitions. In the summer of 2013, he was credited with playing a vital role in preventing the team's likely bankruptcy. Tomov was the main

shareholder and de facto owner (with Lira Investment providing the main part of the financing) of the club between the second half of 2013 and April 2015. He has been against the idea of a deliberate declaration of insolvency and the creation of a new unofficial successor company as a solution to the debts accumulated by the club.

Personal life

Tomov has three children named Rada, Lidia and Alexander. His wife Kalina is an expert on psychology. Tomov's sister, Tatyana, is an academic at

whose area of expertise covers the social policies of European countries. One of Tomov's great-grandfathers perished in the

April Uprising The April Uprising ( bg, Априлско въстание, Aprilsko vastanie) was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The regular Ottoman Army and irregular bashi-bazouk units brutally su ...

. In addition to his native

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

, he is also conversant in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. In an interview with the press, Tomov identified

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

as one of his hobbies. Since February 2015, Tomov has a profile on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Honours

Churchill award (1999) - for his contribution to the development of

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

relations.

References

;Books :

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomov, Aleksandar 1954 births Living people Politicians from Sofia Bulgarian Socialist Party politicians Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria) Government ministers of Bulgaria Academic staff of Sofia University University of National and World Economy alumni Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics alumni Candidates for President of Bulgaria