Alumnus Turned Finance Professor




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  • 2013-09-25 17:08:47
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He is an old friend of AUBG who likes to fly, climb high and deal with a lot of complicated numbers. Professor Nickolay Nedelchev is an alumnus with an impressive resume and practical experience in the fields of business and economics. As of this semester he is one of the new faces in Corporate Finance, so all BUS majors, beware - reinforcements are coming.  [caption id="attachment_15022" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="At the Andes, Argentina"][/caption] “I’ve always felt comfortable here. I’ve been to some of the big reunions back in Blago, even while I was still in the States. I wanted to be a part of those fantastic experiences,” Nedelchev said. He enrolled in AUBG with what would have been the class of 2001 as a POS major, but moved to a university in the U.S. to complete his bachelor’s degree. Eventually he switched to Economics. After graduating with Honors, he landed a job as an analyst at the International Monetary Fund, where he spent four years. His interest in finance actually developed during his senior year in college. “I had made it a point to really develop hands-on skills and study the toolkits available to senior Economics students, such as Econometrics,” he said, explaining that his focus towards practical experience was what made him stand out as a suitable candidate for the job. Following the IMF, he completed an MBA program at Columbia University, which lead him to four years in the private sector in New York, where he was working in the financial services sector. Nedelchev actually came across the AUBG position by chance, while he was back in Sofia. He found out that one of the candidates for a finance professor had backed away. Having in mind his affection for Blagoevgrad and AUBG, the field of expertise that matched his own and the possibility to develop exciting new elective courses for the BUS department in the future, he considered the offer as an exciting opportunity for his personal development. “I’m still getting a feel for what the students are capable of. […] who are really the go-getters versus the people, who are just attending because they are required to take it. In one of the classes there are no such people, because it’s a 400-level elective,” Nedelchev said about his first three complete weeks here. The alumnus has tried to give back to this community by taking part in the fundraising efforts, and he is actually one of the co-founders of the New York Area Alumni Scholarship. Now, being on the other side, Nedelchev said AUBG does come close to similar institutions in the States, but it can always take another step forward. “I think there is room for improvement in the curriculum. This being a liberal arts institution does not preclude the development of more rigor. In other words, I think that the social sciences should receive their necessary emphasis,” he explained. He also pointed out the classes here were designed to make us successful regardless of where we end up developing our careers, so we need to put our “global thinking hats” on. [caption id="attachment_15023" align="alignright" width="252" caption="On Mount Elbrus, the highest in Europe (Nedelchev on the left)"][/caption] In terms of hobbies, Professor Nedelchev is mostly a fan of outdoor activities. As a student at AUBG he was actually a member of the Outdoors Club and participated in the European football internal competitions. “My number one hobby is mountaineering. It’s something I’ve done all over the world,” he said. Some of the most exotic locations he has been to are the Andes in South America, and Iceland, which he referred to as a “place from another planet.” Other than that, Nedelchev likes paragliding and has also skydived a couple of times. He enjoys reading science-fiction and historical fiction, and his movie choices are usually in the same genres. When asked to summarize his personality in one sentence he said: “I like good people and beautiful things.” And as a tip to everyone on campus: “Work hard, but don’t forget to have fun.” ** Pictures from personal archive.