Maxim Behar talk with Desi Banova in "Here and Now" on Nova TV

Host: Hello, I am talking with the manager, journalist, diplomat, PR, and media expert Maxim Behar. Maxim, hi, welcome to your office, thanks for your hospitality.

Maxim: Hi, it's my pleasure.

Host: I listed a lot of things; did I miss anything?

Maxim: No. I'm a man who does his job and nothing more.

Host: Of all these things over the years, what has made you the happiest, most inspired and fulfilled?

Maxim: Working at my company, which I started from the bottom in 1994. I was a journalist for many years, eventually ending up at “ Standard”  newspaper as deputy editor and one of the founders. Remembering very well what Winston Churchill said, "A man can achieve many things in his life as a journalist, if he knows just when to give up that profession.”.

Host: This also applies to politicians.

Maxim: Yes, it is, even in twos or threes. One must know when to quit and go out the front door, not the back door. And so, a group of colleagues left the Standard newspaper and I decided to find my own little company in a tiny apartment, with nothing, no money from the beginning just. And what we did gives me great pleasure and to know every morning coming to the office in my car I feel the same excitement as I did 30 years ago.

Host: That's great and it shows that you love your job. Maxim, you are of Jewish descent can you tell us more about your roots?

Maxim: Just a few weeks ago I was in the town of Behar in Spain near Salamanca, where I'm sure it was in 1492 when the Queen of Spain decided to expel the Jews from Spain and gave them a month to move out of the country with just their hand luggage. Probably almost with great certainty my great-great-grandparents, 531 years old that is, came to the then Ottoman Empire and settled here. When I was young my mother and father spoke "Ladino" at home, that's the Spanish the Jews over the years have always spoken and brought to these lands. But then that connection was broken, and you know, just like Italians in America are Americans, I think we people of Jewish descent in Bulgaria are Bulgarians. We love our homeland, and our ancestry only brings an identification of history, culture, and tradition.

Host: You are a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, you are also a graduate of the University of Economics in Prague, and you have also done graduate studies in Yokohama and Seattle. Being in Yokohama, it impresses me that you are trained in Japanese style of management. Please tell us more.

Maxim: It was a very interesting month in Japan. I worked at the biggest PR & commercial agency in the world "Denso". Every morning I went to lectures in Yokohama, it's about 30 minutes to Tokyo by train. I used to get on the train at noon and go to work at “Denso”, it was very interesting because it's a different world. I learnt a lot of things about how things should be done, especially the Kaizen theory, which means thinking quickly, clearly, and accurately. And I learned a lot of things about how not to do things because they were slightly alien to the European style of management and the way we work. But it really gave me a tremendous experience, and then I went to America for a month. I crossed America from east to west and west to east, and so I wanted to learn what Public Relations was. In fact, it was the most valuable trip abroad I've ever had in my life, and my education at Harvard Kennedy School, which I did in 2019 just before the pandemic. I think they are the most valuable minutes I have ever spent in a training, educational institution, but to tell you that I profess this theory that one should never stop learning, I am currently doing my PHD in. “St. Clement Ohridski".

Host: Wow, bravo on what?

Maxim: On PR and the dissertation I'm writing and hopefully I can finish by the end of the year. It's about global changes in the Public Relations business, a topic I wrote a book on in 2019 came out in America "The Global PR Revolution" and then came out in Bulgaria and many other countries.

Host: I know it's rated #4 as one of the best books.

Maxim: It's currently at number 2. In a ranking by the BookAuthor organization in which people like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and a number of a whole host of millionaires and billionaires vote.

Host: A new dynamic, yes, in your life, given by your two meetings with then Prince Charles, now King Charles III. Please tell me more about those meetings.

Maxim: Very interesting man. In 2002 the King, then Prime Minister, was traveling to London on an official visit and invited me to go to a business forum that was being organized by the government. And because I got this invitation at the last minute, I was very much wondering what to bring him as a gift. Then I wrote Bulgaria's first Standard for Business Ethics. However, Prince Charles did not come to this forum and to get out of this situation, and the King was there, I had prepared two standards, one of which I gave to him. There was a woman there from his forum called "Price's trust" -  Susan Simpson. And Susan came out and I said, "I'm here on behalf of Prince Charles and I'm going to take the award on his behalf," and I literally to get out of the situation said, "Susan, okay but tell His Royal Highness that if he doesn't come to Bulgaria in a few months to get his standard back to me.". So, the ice broke in the room and people laughed. Two weeks later I got an invitation to have lunch with him at St James Palace, we had a wonderful lunch, he talked to me a lot about Bulgaria, about how the relations between Bulgaria and the UK could develop further. And indeed, four months later he arrived in Bulgaria with a plane full of British businessmen. And it happened to me very often after that over the years that a British businessman would come to our company here and I would ask him, "How did you come to Bulgaria?" And he looks at me incomprehensibly and asks, "What are you asking me, you were with Prince Charles, and I was at that meeting, and you found out and you were talking about how Bulgaria is a nice place for investment, how the people are great, the nature is super, that the relations are European.". To this day, that continues to be the case, what Bulgaria really needs now in 2023. And if there is something that hurts me about this whole political house, it is that we forgot to promote Bulgaria abroad. Well, there are problems in politics, every European country has these problems. Last night I had dinner with his cousin Prince Michael of Kent, and we talked throughout the dinner about this very topic. Now we are planning a visit for Bulgarian children from Pleven to visit London, a city which has 5 streets named Pleven. Which probably almost nobody knows, I admit I didn't know either.

Host: And do you think King Charles III will be as loved as his mother?

Maxim: Yes, of course Queen Elizabeth was unique. All those 70 years on the throne with all her glamour, history. But I'm confident that King Charles III will find a way to send very positive and modern messages to his subjects of the British Empire. Because he is a different generation from his mother's, he has his children, nephews, cousins and all that big family of young people we saw at the coronation by his side. Who could advise him so that he could be more close, approachable, and friendly with young people in Britain.

Host: We can't help but touch on the Seychelles. You are the Honorary Consul of Seychelles in Bulgaria. How did your Seychelles tale begin?

Maxim: All things in life begin with a coincidence. I received an email from friends in Paris that the founding president Sir Jaime Mancham would be in Bulgaria for a day. But then in 2004 we had a very long conversation and a few days later when he went home to Seychelles, he called me and said, "I want you to represent us in Bulgaria, I want you to give us advice, work with us, for us." And that's how I ended up in Seychelles, which is my great love.

Host: Here, you also published a book dedicated to "Seychelles recipes and more about "Paradise on Earth". How did the idea for the book come about?

Maxim: A country is judged on 3 factors. These are nature, the people, and the cuisine. I wrote or rather chose 25 recipes from Seychellois cuisine that I know, I have tried them, and I like them, however, I put a lot of stories with a lot of recommendations for places, hotels, restaurants. I also put 100 photos and so it was basically a guide to heaven on earth.

Host: They say behind every successful man is a strong woman, is that true in your case?

Maxim: Yes, it is. And, behind me is a very strong, dedicated, professional team in my company. After all, I am a manager, I think about the business. I'm overjoyed with a nice quiet time at home, loving and sharing with my wife. But I also don't want to underestimate the support, professionalism I get from my colleagues.

Host: Maxim what is the biggest miracle in your life?

Maxim: That despite everything I've done a little or a lot, I'm not the one to judge. I keep thinking that I am Maxim who at the age of 13 and a half went to work as a carpenter in the then Serdika factory. I spent my first summer there and my first baptism at work. And Maxim who then spent 5 years in a machine-building factory before he started his studies. And that I haven't changed since then and if someone asks me, "What are you doing, how are you living, what's going on with you, what have you achieved, where are you?" I have only one answer with which we started our meeting, "I'm doing my job".

Host: I wish you many more long years of doing your great work.

Maxim: Thank you as well. I wish you every success with this wonderful show on Nova TV.

Host: Thank you from the deep of my heart.

You can watch the whole interview here.