When we first launched This is Bulgaria on November 1st, 2025, we did something different. We organized a closed-door event - part think tank, part town hall - designed to enable different opinions to circulate the same room. At one point in the evening, we simply invited the audience to pick up the mic and share their "Why Bulgaria?" story. One of them was a young, energized, unapologetic voice that cut through the room with quiet conviction. This is how I first met Boris de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha y Ungría. Yes, it's a long name. For those who don't know, Boris is the elder son of Miriam Ungría y López and Kardam, Prince of Tarnovo - the grandson of former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria.
Our conversation that evening led to dinner. That dinner led to Boris visiting Plovdiv. So we found ourselves sitting in our home kitchen, steam rising from cups of coffee, the November light filtering through the window, talking about semiconductors, royal legacies, and the future of a nation that refuses to be defined by its past.
In the quiet, deliberate way he speaks, Boris of Tarnovo reminds you that a crown is not always made of gold; sometimes, it is forged in the silicon of a semiconductor. As a artist who has traded the physical studio for the high-stakes arena of global strategy, he views the world not through the lens of inherited power, but through the artisan’s eye for structure. He is a sculptor without a chisel, currently shaping the intangible networks that will define Bulgaria’s next decade. His presence in Sofia today is a matter of deliberate choice. Born in Madrid, educated in the international corridors of London and Paris, Boris has spent his life navigating a globalized existence. Yet, he chose to close the chapter on his art career in London to return to his roots. This wasn't a return to a palace, but a move toward a sandbox for the future. In the developed capitals of Western Europe, he found stable positions but little room for actual development. In Bulgaria, however, Boris sees a land where growth is still raw, where he can do something truly meaningful.
"I finished the Masters in July 24, moved to Bulgaria. Around September 2024, spent a few months here," Boris reflects, his voice carrying the calm of someone who has finally found the right medium to work in. "I went back to Madrid and started looking at the next steps. Okay, where can I find a job? I like a job that is impactful. A job that I can do something meaningful with. In Spain, in London, in Paris, I was even looking at Vienna. The jobs were okay. It was probably stable positions in, let's say, relatively interesting jobs, but with it’s a very little to actually develop, to actually do. For me, especially having written and researched Bulgaria quite extensively, Bulgaria was kind of the obvious choice."
Boris’s childhood was an education in no expectations. Born in Madrid, his very arrival was a marker of historical transition; his parents married only after his grandfather, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was permitted to return to Bulgarian soil in 1996. Growing up, there was no narrative of a lost throne, only a philosophy that emphasized that it is not what you do, but how you do it. "Birth was determined on when my grandfather came to Bulgaria," he recalls, the history of his family interwoven with the history of the state. "We always grew up with the mindset of, you know, do what you love, learn what you want to learn, live your life in a respectful, positive manner, but there’s not going to be an easy way out for any of this. It’s not going to be a kind of power up, like Super Mario, the little star. It’s not going to give you any powers or anything like that. It comes with a lot of privileges... I know that I am extremely lucky to be where I am, but at the same time, it’s not something as a given or to live because, as you said, it’s a royal family that is no more."
This mindset led him first to the world of Fine Arts in London, where he spent eight years learning to manipulate form and space. But eventually, the desire to see how things are implemented in the real world pulled him toward international relations and strategy. This shift was a transition from understanding creativity to understanding implementation. "I still consider myself an artist," he says firmly. "I think art is not necessarily a matter of action. You're not only an artist if you make things. I think Artistry is something about the process of thinking, about creativity, about finding innovative ways of visualizing concepts."
When Boris co-authored his strategic roadmap, he was drafting a blueprint for a national power-up. His research argues that semiconductors - the foundation of everything from smartphones to quantum computing - are the strategic resource of our era. For decades, the global supply chain has clustered around Taiwan, leaving the world vulnerable to geopolitical tremors. Boris identifies a clear opportunity for the EU, and specifically Bulgaria, to step into this gap. He champions the Second Mover Advantage. "There is an advantage to being the second mover. There’s an advantage to being a smaller in theory, more agile economy," he notes. Much like a master craftsman waits to see how a new material behaves before committing to a final cut, Bulgaria can look at the expensive mistakes of Western Europe, leapfrog directly into the future. We see this in Sofia’s fiber-optic infrastructure, which Boris notes puts the aging systems of London to shame. In London, he discovered his internet was dependent on "a block of wood with two nails with copper coiled around it," whereas Bulgaria had skipped the copper era entirely and gone straight to fiber.
However, to truly help a Bulgarian business today, one must confront the friction Boris identified in the field: the Islands of Knowledge. During his research, he visited companies in Ruse where teams create disposable medical sensors smaller than a grain of sugar. "The guys, I mean, if you were in the US, you would be the next Nvidia," he told them, his frustration evident at the untapped potential he saw. The tragedy is that these islands of genius often work in isolation, serving as a back-office for global giants while failing to capture the Intellectual Property for themselves. "They are individual islands of knowledge that don't cooperate with each other willingly or unwillingly," he observes. "Bulgarian companies work in sort of islands. They're isolated islands that don't communicate with each other, that don't work with each other."
From my perspective, using Boris’s strategy means shifting the goalpost from Outsourcing to Ownership. We currently have the lowest labor costs in the EU, but that should not be our final identity. We must use this environment to develop and license our own patents. We must stop being a territory that is used to start being a nation that owns its intellectual destiny. "We should learn from it," he insists, looking at the tech giants like HP and IBM utilizing Bulgarian skill. "Not only do the job, but learn from the job. We should learn how to manufacture, and they started learning not only how to manufacture, but how to design. They learned not only how to design, but how to implement; not only how to implement, but how to strategize. So they took the opportunity they had and took it for themselves."
Boris is a realist about the frictions of the crossroads. He understands that Bulgaria stands on a literal and metaphorical crossroads - between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. This positioning is our greatest asset and our most dangerous liability. He identifies profound challenges that could stifle growth: political instability, the talent drain, and fragmented institutional support. "Bulgaria is a tricky place when it comes to the relation with oil, with energy pipelines going through it," he warns. "Bulgaria is at the crossroads of all of that, quite literally the crossroads between Europe, Asia, Russia, Middle East. And Bulgaria is going to have to be very smart about it. I hope it does." His solution is a two-pronged attack on the status quo: Transparency and Education. By investing in judicial reform and cybersecurity, Bulgaria can build the institutional trust needed to anchor global capital. By sponsoring scholarships and workforce development, we give our young engineers a reason to stay and build their empires here.
What does it take for a nation like Bulgaria to qualify for the G20 within fifteen years? Boris believes it requires more than just being qualified; it requires a reason to be there. "Bulgaria needs to have a competitive advantage. You need to have an expertise or having a knowledge, again, an IP that’s robust, that’s stronger than all the other 198 states in the world," he asserts. Bulgaria must create an economy that is more resilient and better organized than its peers. This means moving beyond simple scale, focusing on robust IP and specific industry expertise. He looks to history for inspiration, citing how the Mongol Empire’s horse-messenger system gave them a competitive advantage through the speed of information. "A message could be transported in about a month, which was instant messaging back in the day. Communication is the key. Without proper communication, you can't compete, because by the time you react, somebody else has beaten you to it. Communication, effective communication on a geopolitical level, is what has made countries great or not."
Boris of Tarnovo is a Bulgarian hero for the digital age because he understands that identity is not a relic - it is a strategy. He is helping us realize that we are a crossroads of genius. He is busy building the modern version of the Mongol Empire’s horse-messengers - the infrastructure of communication that will allow our islands to finally speak to each other. The sculptor has laid down the chisel to shape a sovereign silicon future. He is helping us see that Bulgaria’s potential is not a theory - it is a choice. It is the choice to be meaningful, to be impactful, and to finally own the stage we have helped build for everyone else.
To truly reach the depth this story deserves, we must explore the sensory and philosophical details of this transition. Imagine the smell of the sculpture studio in London - the sawdust, the cold stone, the physical struggle to force material into form. Then contrast that with the clean, silent, high-tech precision of a semiconductor lab in Ruse. For Boris, these are not different worlds; they are different ways of solving the same problem. The problem of how to build something that lasts. When he speaks of the energy sector, he is talking about the physical lifeblood of the nation. He is working in a renewable energy company not as a figurehead, but as a strategic developer. "Essentially a business developer for things that don't exist yet," as he puts it. He is thinking about the next steps for the company - preemptively, not reactionarily. "Building networks of people... building and meeting the right people," is how he sees his mission.
We must also consider the legacy he carries. Being a descendant of a royal family in a country where that family no longer has power creates a unique perspective. "I know that I am extremely lucky to be where I am," he acknowledges, "but at the same time, it’s not something as a given or to live. It's a royal family that is no more. Now, the most I can do is to keep traditions and to keep the history, but it’s not as if there’s going to be any executive power." His grandfather’s advice - it is not what you do, but how you do it - is the foundation of his work ethic. He is in Bulgaria because he chose to be. That choice makes his work more powerful. He is not supposed to be here; he chose to be here. This choice is what makes him a modern hero.
The energy sector in Bulgaria is at the crossroads of global power. Boris sees the potential for Bulgaria to be one of the best testbeds for the future of energy thought leadership. The fact that the country has moved slowly in some areas has actually enabled more resilience. "Moving slow enables the more resilience in the long ways. I think from a resilience point of view, it's one of the smartest moves," he notes. By moving at its own pace, Bulgaria can ensure that its growth is sustainable. This is the magic of the second mover.
As we look toward the future, the message is clear. Bulgaria has the intellectual capacity. It has the talent. It has the geographical advantage. What it needs is the strategy to pull it all together. It needs to stop being afraid of its own potential. Boris is a part of that awakening. He is helping to create a new economic platform that will provide long-term strategic growth. He is helping to capture the intellectual property that has for too long been exported. He is a sculptor, yes, but the material he is working with now is the future of a nation. "The Interest kind of were aligning," he says of his relationship with the country’s history and its future. The strategy is already in our hands. We just have to be brave enough to execute it. This is the story of a man who left his supplies in London but found a new set of tools in Sofia. It is the story of a country that is finally beginning to realize its own power.