EC appoints Bulgaria’s Tsanova as Deputy D-G to steer its borrowing and lending operations
The European Commission (EC) said on June 2 that has appointed Iliyana Tsanova, a Bulgarian national, as Deputy Director-General of the Directorate-General for Budget (DG BUDG).
She will be responsible for ensuring the sound governance and effective risk management of the borrowing and lending and other financial operations and activities undertaken by DG BUDG.
She should take up her new functions on September 1 2021.
The EC said that Tsanova has 20 years of outstanding experience in international development and investment banking, a strong leadership and management experience along with excellent negotiations skills which make her very well suited to play a key role in managing the financing of the Union’s budgetary support for the Union recovery plan in the context of Covid-19 crisis.
In her new capacity, she will act as Chief Risk Officer at the Commission, which will allow her to draw, in particular, on the robust experience she has previously gained as Deputy Managing Director of European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and in various senior positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the EC said.
Tsanova is currently working as the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of SofConnect.
Until 2020, she was holding the position of Deputy Managing Director of EFSI, a 26 billion euro guarantee facility provided by the European Union to the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group to support strategic investments in the EU.
She was responsible for the management and implementation of EFSI and the achievement of its strategic objectives through close co-operation with the EIB Group and EFSI Steering Board.
In addition, she has also obtained over a 10-year development banking and sustainable finance experience with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Among the several senior positions she occupied at the institution is the function of Director for “EU Co-financing and Financial Engineering”.
In this capacity, she was in charge of developing strategic cooperation with the European Commission for devising and managing blended financial and risk-sharing instruments to support investments in the field of research and innovation, energy efficiency and urban development, environment and climate finance, SME financing.
Previously, she was also Associate Director, leading a team in charge of business origination, execution and implementation of debt and equity infrastructure investments in South Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia in EBRD.
The EC said that Tsanova’s broad professional experience is diversified further by her former engagements in commercial banks and consultancy while also assuming governmental responsibilities for brief periods in caretaker capacity as a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU funds management in Bulgaria. Tsanova held that post in the 2014 Bliznashki caretaker administration.
(Screenshot: BNT)
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