• The highly professional leadership program for ladies of middle management positions and owners of the small and medium business (SMBs) is under the patronage of Yordanka Fandakova – the mayor of Sofia
• This year the project was supported by Ms. Milena Damyanova, a chairperson of the Committee of Education and Science to the National Assembly, and Ms. Irena Sokolova, president of “Women-GERB”

The mayor Yordanka Fandakova officially opened the Leadership Academy 2016/2017 on the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria during an official ceremony yesterday. Ms. Fandakova supports the initiative from its beginning, three years ago, and is a traditional patron who inspirates the young ladies in the Academy.

This year the project was supported by Ms. Milena Damyanova, the chairperson of the Committee of Education and Science to the National Assembly, and Ms Irena Sokolova, president of “Women-GERB”. Guests of the event were members of the Council, graduates of the first and the second Leadership Academy, participants in the new class of 2016/2017, media, friends to the ideas and the goals of the Council.

“The Leadership Academy is a successful model for personal development, spread all around the world. After the graduation of the first two classes of the Leadership Academy results can already be seen and conclusions can be made. The members are motivated, because the added value from the education is visible in their work” shares the mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandakova in salutation to the third Leadership Academy. Ms. Fandakova congratulated the Council of Women in business for the conducted Global Forum of the women leaders and the accepted Declaration from Sofia and added: “Thanks to programs like this and only with motivated and educated people, who work in the business, the standard of the business environment can be increased”.

“The Leadership Academy made its first steps in 2014 as a project of followers driven by their common ambition to help other ladies for their successful and personal realization. When we started the first edition of the training program we still had worries if we were going to succeed and whether it would be interesting. Today these worries are in the past. The evidence for this are the smiling faces that I see before me”, announced Boryana Manolova, a chairperson of the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria.

“Congratulations to the Council for the realization of the Leadership Academy. I hope that you will continue your inspiring work in the years ahead”, the chairperson of the Committee of Education and Science to the National Assembly Milena Damayanova could not hide her admiration. She encouraged the members of the Academy: “There are no small parts in life, everybody has their own talent. The leadership is not measured by positions and titles. The big leaders look upon the challenges. Today you are stepping in front of your own challenge and you are making your first step towards your success”.

“With the support of the Council today we united all of the members in the social life- governmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions, business and etc. in a common cause.” supported the initiative Ms. Irena Sokolova. “We are uniting efforts to discover people with this specific vocation, those to be the next leaders” she added

Leadership Academy 2016/2017

The Leadership Academy is an annual highly professional training program, which is organized and is funded by companies from the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria. The Academy is a project implementing one of the goals of the Council- to offer accessible programs for encouragement of the professional development of women in SMBs and their growth in management positions.

The selected to be trained in the Leadership Academy 2016/2017 are representatives of different economic sectors – banks, information and communication technology, marketing, consulting services, production, construction, tourism, public administration and etc. A major part of the participants work in Sofia and are representatives of SMBs.

The Academy is funded entirely by the companies from the Council and is completely free for the members. Its six modules, led by professional trainers, are meant to develop the leadership skills, encourage the initiative and entrepreneurial spirit of the modern woman for the expansion of her business and the embracing of bigger responsibility. The members of the Council of Women and the Management board of the organization take part in the trainings, getting to know the participants in the Academy and sharing with them their experience, advices and guidance.