About Petia

My name is Petia Whitmore. I was born and raised in Bulgaria. For the last sixteen years, I have been living just outside of Boston, MA. Until very recently, I was the Dean of Graduate Admissions at Babson College. You can see the meanderings of my idiosyncratic career on my LinkedIn profile.

As a child, I had two professional dreams - to be a writer and/or a private investigator. I somehow ended up acquiring a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA instead. 

My number one vice - liberally cultivated and indulged - is wanderlust. Even in my early years, when being on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain made travel virtually impossible, I incessantly read about foreign lands and the people who wandered and conquered them. 

I am and will always be a person of two worlds. I grew up during communism, spent years as a young professional in a fledgling democracy and have now been making my personal and professional mark in the US for sixteen years. The result is a combination of American pragmatism and a firm belief that an entrepreneurial spirit can lead to success, mixed with a pinch of Eastern European tendency towards nostalgia and mysticism. 

There are three principles that guide my personal and professional life - do your job, do it well, do the right thing. 

My hope with Flying Raconteur is to share my love of travel and help others have rich and memorable travel experiences.