Partners

Mr. Nicola Yankov (born in 1971) is Chairman of the Board of Expat Capital.

Nicola Yankov currently holds stakes in and serves on the boards of several private companies. He has recently served as Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications (2003 – 2005), where he was responsible for management oversight and business planning in the government-controlled business entities in the sector (2005 total operating revenues in excess of EUR 2 billion), as well as for promoting private investment in public infrastructure such as ports and airports. Concurrently he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Port Authority and a member of the Council for Economic Policy and the Council for Economic Growth under the Council of Ministers, among other public office engagements. Prior to that Mr. Yankov served as Deputy Minister of Economy (2001 – 2003), where he was responsible for industrial sector development and regulation and was also Chairman of the Temporary Protection Tariffs and Quotas Committee.

Nicola Yankov has held a number of senior private sector management positions, such as Member of the Supervisory Board of Lukoil Neftochim AD (the largest oil refinery in South-East Europe), Member of the Board and Vice-President of Naftex Bulgaria Holding AD (the largest distributor of fuel products in Bulgaria), Chief Executive Officer at Naftex Petrol AD (the biggest wholesaler of fuel products and part of the Naftex company group), Finance Director at Solvay Sodi AD (part of the Solvay Group), etc. He currently sits on the board of Hild Asset – the biggest life annuity business in Central and Eastern Europe, controlled partially by Merril Lynch.

Mr. Yankov has a BS degree in Consumer Economics from Cornell University in the United States (1994). He speaks English, Russian and French.


Mr. Nikolay Vassilev, CFA (born in 1969) is CEO and member of the Board of Expat Capital, as well as owner of Expat Group.

Nikolay Vassilev was a member of the last two governments of the Republic of Bulgaria in the past 8 years, serving consecutively as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy (2001 – 2003), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications (2003 – 2005), and Minister of State Administration and Administrative Reform (2005 – 2009).

Previously, Nikolay Vassilev was Senior Vice President at Lazard Capital Markets – London (2000 – 2001), and Associated Director at UBS (UBS Warburg Dillon Read) in the Tokyo, New York and London offices (1996 – 2000), working in the area of equities and emerging markets. He was also a tax adviser at Coopers & Lybrand in Budapest, Hungary (1993 – 1994).

Nikolay Vassilev holds a Master of Arts degree in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University, USA (1997), Keio University (Tokyo, Japan), as well as two Bachelor's degrees from the State University of New York, USA (1995) and the Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Hungary (1994), and has been a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder since 1999. He speaks English, Hungarian and Russian and has a basic knowledge of French, German and Japanese.

Currently Nikolay Vassilev is member of the Board of the Bulgarian CFA Association.