The Harvard Club of Bulgaria was established on Monday in Sofia. Harvard University graduates from Bulgaria, steeped in the traditions of the world-renowned intellectual centre, were the founders.

They are resolved to take on their share of responsibility in business and politics, according to a declaration read at the club's inauguration at the Swedish embassy in Sofia on Monday evening.

Georgi Velchev, with a PhD in Economics and Finance, was elected club president at an official reception given by Swedish ambassador Sten Ask. Ask is one of the co-founders of the club, together with U.S. ambassador Richard Miles and Luise Druke, Sofia representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Velchev studied at the Vienna Institute of Economics, the European Institute of Business Administration, and the Harvard Business School. He worked with the London-based Lehman Brothers in 1997 and with Morgan Stanley since 1999. The members of the club will strive to gain a foothold in public life among leading politicians, business people and other influential figures. They were greeted on behalf of Greek billionaire Socrates Kokkalis, president of the Kokkalis Foundation which has launched a program to send students from Central and Eastern Europe to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Harvard will host a seminar under the Kokkalis program at the end of October, to focus on Bulgaria's economic and political development, said Kokkalis Foundation vice president Niki Tzavela. The Kokkalis program has organized numerous events on Bulgaria at Harvard University and promotes lectures by Bulgarian leaders and prominent scholars focusing on the country's development and social life.