Asen Vaskov Vasilev (, born 9 September 1977) is a Bulgarian politician and economist who served as

Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria The Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria () is the deputy of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and a member of the Government of Bulgaria. They can also be one of the Ministers of Bulgaria. The position is oftentimes held multiple people at once. https ...

from 2021 to 2022 and as

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

on three occasions from 2021 to 2024. A member of the PP party, which he co-founded and currently leads alongside

Kiril Petkov Kiril Petkov Petkov (; born 17 April 1980) is a Bulgarian politician, economist, and entrepreneur, who served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria from December 2021 to August 2022. He is the co-leader of We Continue the Change, a political party he ...

, he is currently serving as Member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Education

Vasilev earned a degree in economics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2000 and continued studies at Harvard Business School.

Professional career

Vasilev is a co-founder and president of Everbeard, an airline ticket pricing company. It is partly funded by the Singapore National Research Fund and the first

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

investor. Vasilev was the co-founder and director of the Centre for Economic Strategy and Competitiveness. He is a lecturer in the Program for Economic Growth and Development, a branch of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski” and with the Centre for Strategy and Competitiveness of

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. From 1999 to 2004, Vasilev worked as a consultant for

Monitor Group Monitor Deloitte is the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting. Monitor Deloitte specializes in providing strategy consultation services to the senior management of major organizations and governments. It helps its cl ...

in the US, Canada, Europe, and South Africa. He managed marketing and strategic development projects for large international companies in the fields of telecommunications, energy, mining, insurance, and several major consumer goods manufacturers.

Political career

In 2013 Vasilev was Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism in the caretaker government of

Marin Raykov Marin Raykov Nikolov ( ; born 17 December 1960) is a Bulgarian people, Bulgarian politician and diplomat who was appointed to serve as a Caretaker government, caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bulgaria), ministe ...

. From 12 May to 16 September 2021, he was Minister of Finance in the caretaker government of

Stefan Yanev Stefan Dinchev Yanev (; born 1 March 1960) is a retired Bulgarian brigade general and politician who served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2021, leading a caretaker government. A political independent, he also served as Minister of Defence i ...

. On 19 September 2021, together with

, Vasilev presented his new political project "

We continue the change We Continue the Change (; PP), sometimes translated as Change Continues, is a Centrism, centrist, anti-corruption List of political parties in Bulgaria, political party and formerly an electoral alliance in Bulgaria led by Kiril Petkov and Asen Va ...

". He was the leader of the party list in Haskovo and Sofia 23 for the

2021 Bulgarian general election General elections were held in Bulgaria on 14 November 2021 to elect both the President of Bulgaria, President and the National Assembly (Bulgaria), National Assembly. They were the country's third parliamentary elections in 2021, with no party ...

on 14 November. The party won the most seats in the new parliament and formed a coalition government on 13 December 2021. Vasilev became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the short-lived Petkov government. The Petkov government's mandate ended in late June 2022 after Prime Minister Kiril Petkov resigned following a no-confidence vote, and on 1 July President

Rumen Radev Rumen Georgiev Radev (, born 18 June 1963) is a Bulgarian politician and former major general who has been the President of Bulgaria since 2017. Radev previously served as higher commander of the Bulgarian Air Force. He won the 2016 Bulgarian p ...

asked Vasilev to form a new government. One week later as prescribed by the constitution Vasilev informed the president that his party only had the support of 117 members, falling four short of the majority. "Unfortunately, we failed to gather enough support to implement the politics that our...government would have wanted to push through. We could not get the support needed to rid Bulgaria of corruption and make the state work for the people, instead of channeling taxpayers’ money into a few select companies that can use it to corrupt the political class. We hope that in the next elections, the additional four deputies will be elected by the people." In May 2024 Vassilev became embroiled in a scandal revealed when someone leaked wiretaps of conversations that should have remained private.

Other activities

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shortened to EBRD ( French: ''Banque européenne pour la reconstruction et le développement'' or ''BERD''), is an international financial institution founded in 1991 in Paris. As a multilat ...

(EBRD), Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Governors (since 2021)Board of Governors

(EBRD).

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasilev, Asen 1977 births Living people People from Haskovo Harvard Business School alumni 21st-century Bulgarian politicians Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria) Finance ministers of Bulgaria