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Vote for Personality in the News 2014

The voting is now closed.

Bulgaria's largest English-language media Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) our Bulgarian-language service Novinite.bg and the Russian-language Novinite.com invite you, our readers from around the world, to select Bulgaria's "Personalities in the News" for 2014!

Novinite's team has nominated three people in each of the six categories this year: Politics; Business; Diplomacy; Culture; Sports; and Charity, with a few of the names coinciding with those of nominees from the 2013 poll.

Each reader vote will be equally important in determining who will be the winner in the respective category.

Last year's winners included Irina Bokova, UNESCO's first female Secretary General (Politcs); ABB country manager Ekkehard Neureither and Walltopia founder Ivaylo Penchev (tied in Business); Japan's Ambassador to Sofia Takashi Koizumi (Diplomacy); top tennis player Grigor Dimitrov (Sports); violinist Vesko Eschkenazy (Culture); and Dobri Dobrev, known as "the Elder Dobri" (Charity).

Voting will continue until mid-February 2015. Within this time we will take special care to present and promote equally all the nominees through interviews and articles.

The winners will be announced and awarded at a special ceremony in March which has already turned into a traditional and cherished event among expats, diplomats and businessmen in Bulgaria and around the world.

Check our 2014 nominations and pick Bulgaria's most deserving personalities in politics, business, culture; sports; charity and from among ambassadors to Sofia! HAVE YOUR SAY!

Politics

	Boyko Borisov A Bulgarian Prime Minister for a second term in office – something that had not happened since 1990, when Andrey Lukanov formed two consecutive governments. He put forth a lot of effort to achieve consensus in Parliament and included four political parties in the government.

	Kristalina Georgieva European Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources. She was elected for a second term at the Commission to a high-profile office. Everyone in Europe knows Kristalina Georgieva for her work, her reputation is impeccable.

	#WHO? The mythical, anonymous behind-the-scenes force which is considered to have a say in Bulgaria's governance. It supposedly decides on political appointments, controls magistrates and issues court rulings, holds power over lawmakers and votes laws for its own profit, wins public procurement and dominates the economy. Is it really there?

Business

	Serge Schmidt General Manager Bulgaria and Greece at Italcementi Group. The company is a First Class investor, whose production capacity of nearly 68 M tonnes of cement per year makes it the fifth largest producer of cement in the world and the largest in the Mediterranean region.

	Stein-Erik Vellan CEO of Telenor Bulgaria. Even though the Norwegian giant acquired Bulgaria's second largest mobile operator Globul in 2013, the rebranding started in 2014. The company announced plans for big investments in service improvement and network updates. According to Vellan, this would be the largest investment in Bulgaria for 2014, but the sum was not disclosed.

	Vasil Terziev and Svetozar Georgiev Co-founders of the Bulgarian IT company Telerik. Terziev and Georgiev, together with partners and like-minded friends, set up the company from scratch in 2002. In 2014 they sold Telerik to the US company Progress Software from Bedford, Massachusetts for USD 262.5 M.

Diplomacy

	Jonathan Allen The UK's Ambassador to Bulgaria since 2012 has been nominated for his proactiveness and support for breaking stereotypes and prejudices related to inequality and lack of tolerance to deprived groups in society; for his initiatives to boost integration in Bulgaria's society by opening people's hearts and minds for the disadvantaged.

	Shaul Kamisa Raz Israel's Ambassador to Bulgaria since 2012. He did not allow the bloody terror act in Burgas, which claimed the lives of five Israeli citizens in the same year, to strain relations between Israel and Bulgaria. Over the past two years he had actively worked to promote cooperation between the two countries in areas such as economy and culture.

	Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes Since assuming office as the Ambassador of France in 2013, he has been one of the most active foreign diplomats in Bulgaria. In 2014 he was honored with the Ministry of Culture's Golden Century Award for his special merits in development of cultural cooperation between the two countries. An outspoken friend of Bulgaria, he has more than once openly declared his affection for our country. He is married to a Bulgarian woman and speaks excellent Bulgarian.

Sport

	Cosmin Moti The star of PFC Ludogorets Razgrad made the headlines on August 27, 2014, when at the end of the game with Romania's Steaua Bucuresti he replaced the goalkeeper and later saved two penalties, also scoring a goal for his team. It was thus Moti, a Romanian, who contributed the most to his team's place in the group stage of 2014-15 UEFA Champions League. The club from Razgrad became the second Bulgarian team that makes it into the league after Levski Sofia did in 2006.

	Grigor Dimitrov Bulgaria's best tennis player secured 50 victories in 2014 and with his three titles is No. 11 in the ATP Rankings. Within 15 weeks in a row, from July 7 to October 19, he was in the Top 10 of the world's best tennis players.

	Stanimira Petrova After 15 years of Tae Kwon Do, charming Stanimira Petrova moved to the boxing ring and won a gold medal in the bantamweight (54 kg) category of the 2014 AIBA Women's Boxing World Championships. She is the first-ever female world boxing champion in Bulgaria's history.

Culture

	Aleksandar Morfov A director and revolutionary. Morfov is a 100-percent artist who shows that it is not impossible to call the things with their real names. Morfov continues to be an inspiration not only to the actors, but also to the audience which enjoys his work.

	Krisia, Hasan and Ibrahim The charming trio which melted the hearts of all Bulgarians with its performance at the children's Eurovision. The 10-year-old singer and the 11-year-old twin virtuoso pianists proved that the Planet of Children is the place of which all can dream.

	Milen Ruskov Ruskov demonstrated that words matter and can be heard even in times when we discuss the absence of freedom of speech. The Bulgarian author received the 2014 European Union Prize for Literature for his novel Summit (Възвишение).

Charity

	Ivanka Shalapatova Executive Director of the Four Our Children foundation. Shalapatova has a considerable contribution to the protection of children's rights in Bulgaria and the fight against child abuse. She instrumental in the successful implementation of regional and global experience in the protection of children's rights.

	Kiril Boyanov Chairperson of the board of the Eureka foundation. The Eureka foundation supports young talent and realizes projects in the spheres of science, technology and management. Boyanov has a doctoral degree in science and has contributed to the creation of groundbreaking calculation equipment. He is a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science and has overseen the introduction and implementation of the World Wide Web in Bulgaria in the 1990s.

	Vladislav Nozharov Nozharov and his NGO Cause continued its campaign “Leave A Trace” drawing the public attention to the health problems and the need for better health services for premature babies. Since 2012 the organization has raised more than BGN 150 000, which were donated to various hospitals across Bulgaria for the purchase of modern equipment – mostly baby incubators.