Leadership Talk: The History of Silicon Valley with Bret Waters

Name: Leadership Talk: The History of Silicon Valley with Bret Waters
Start: 2026-06-18T18:30:00+03:00
End: 2026-06-18T21:00:00+03:00
Location: 1 Universitetski Park Str., 1700 Sofia, Bulgaria

Schedule

Thu Jun 18 2026 at 06:30 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC+03:00

Location

1 Universitetski Park Str., 1700 Sofia, Bulgaria | Sofia, SF

Silicon Valley founder and entrepreneurship mentor Bret Waters is coming to AUBG on June 18 at the AUBG Elieff Center in Sofia for a fascinating talk on the history of Silicon Valley, long before it became the world’s most influential hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology.
The event is organized by the AUBG Executive MBA team as part of the AUBG Leadership Talks series, in collaboration with the Stanford Club of Bulgaria (https://www.stanfordclub.bg/), represented by AUBG EMBA alumna Sofia Toteva (EMBA ’11), and with BESCO - The Bulgarian Entrepreneurial Association (https://besco.bg/), serving as a communication partner. The event also reflects AUBG’s commitment to executive education and lifelong learning, inspiring a new generation of leaders by connecting Bulgaria’s business community with the ideas, networks, and innovation ecosystems that shape the future of the world.
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In this Leadership Talk, Waters traces Silicon Valley’s history back to 1849, showing that it did not begin with software. From Gold Rush entrepreneurs and a railroad baron named Leland Stanford, to HP's garage, the invention of the transistor, the “traitorous eight,” a 16-year-old Steve Jobs cold-calling the co-founder of HP, a Stanford professor who coined the term artificial intelligence, and a video game company that accidentally became an AI powerhouse – this talk tells the remarkable, interconnected story of how Silicon Valley came to be.
The AUBG Leadership Talks series brings together professionals, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to share perspectives on how culture, networks, universities, and history shape today’s entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems. As part of AUBG’s growing portfolio of executive education initiatives, the series aims to create meaningful conversations and learning opportunities for professionals, founders, and future leaders across industries.
About Bret Waters, founder and entrepreneurship mentor
Bret Waters brings a lifetime of Silicon Valley experience. He teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford, serves as an Executive Mentor at Miller Center for Global Impact, and provides private coaching to startup founders. Previously, he was the Founder and CEO of three Silicon Valley software companies, served on the advisory board of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, was interim CEO at Stanford New Schools, and worked as Chief Mentor with the European Innovation Academy. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
This Leadership Talk invites participants to reflect on what leaders, founders, and organizations can learn from Silicon Valley’s evolution: how ecosystems are built, how ideas grow through networks, and how opportunity often emerges from curiosity, persistence, and collaboration.