Bulgarian American Business Center

Board of directors

Edward S. Manukian

Edward S. Manukian is internationally recognized as an authority on privatization and business development in Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union. He is an expert in the areas of critical due diligence issues research, technology transfer, compensation financing and counter trade. He acts as a consultant to American and European financial institutions, corporations and law firms. He also identifies and invests in start-up business and Greenfield projects in the region.

Background

Edward S. Manukian was born in 1953 in Bulgaria. He maintains citizenship in Canada and is a permanent resident of United States since 1986. He is a graduate of Leningrad State University, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Professional Activities

From 1986 to 1991, Mr. Manukian was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, College Park where he taught courses in Cognitive Science, Philosophy, Methodology and Logic of Science, as well as Social and Political Philosophy. He was also appointed for 5 years as the director of a high-technology joint venture between the University of Maryland and the former Soviet Academy of Sciences. While serving on the faculty at College Park, he worked with leading Soviet scholars, some of them Nobel Prize winners and arranged for the licensed transfer of several newly declassified Russian high technologies to the West. He was instrumental in organizing the first exhibition ever in the United States of Soviet military technologies with dual use, i.e. with civilian applications, some of them indeed with a very significant commercial potential. During the same period, he organized a visit to the former USSR of a delegation of businessmen from several leading Maryland industries including Martin Marietta and Westinghouse accompanied by then Governor William Schaefer.

From 1986 to the present, Mr. Manukian has been continuously a consultant to major law firms, investment banks and corporations in the United States and Europe with respect to corporate interests in Eastern Europe and the new Republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Manucian’s clients include:

  • Lehman Brothers
  • Skadden Arps
  • Sprint International
  • Creditanstalt of Austria
  • MetLife
  • McGuire Woods Battle and Boothe
  • Cisco Systems
  • Energy Corp
  • Rothschild Inc.
  • Westinghouse Corporation
  • Global Telecom Systems
  • Enron Corporation
  • Thomson Electronics
  • Schlumberger
  • SMS Demag
  • Kvaerne

Mr. Manukian is President of Simplified Solutions, Inc. that he founded in 1988 in Washington, D.C. in order to provide consulting services to the American business community. The company advises on business development in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, focusing mainly on banking and financial issues associated with the privatization process as well as technology transfer.

Additionally, Mr. Manukian is President of Frontier Recycling Limited, a privately-held company initially owned by Inolion, SIPI Metals and Simplified Solutions, Inc. Inolion is an investment fund managed by Credit Lyonnais, SIPI Metals is a U.S. corporation based in Chicago which refines and manufactures precious metals and non-ferrous alloys. In January 1996 Mr. Manukian bought out the interest of Credit Lyonnais and became the major shareholder in the company. The company specializes in the recycling of precious metals and non-ferrous metals in Eastern Europe.

Mr. Manukian’s consulting services comprise an array of investigative and problem solving activities specific to East-West business relationships. He conducts in-country research on critical issues such as the conditions of existing infrastructure, the status of government plans for modernization and other governmental needs and priorities, and the influence of local industrial interests on protectionism directed against Western banks and corporations. He conducts due diligence and performs document analysis in support of negotiations; lobbies government authorities on behalf of large corporate projects; arranges for offset programs and local syndicated financing; advises on the choice of strategic partners; and resolves corporate conflicts by creating strategic alliances with local interests and banks.

In addition, Mr. Manucian acts as a trouble shooter for corporate conflict resolution; organizes compensation and barter financing; negotiates for due process in declassification of vital documents needed for multinational projects. He also arranges local engineering, legal, accounting, environmental and other expert services support, always vital for the success of any serious undertaking in the region.

In the past year, Mr. Manukian has personally participated in the investment venture capital to facilitate the transfer of technology from Russia to the U.S., and in the financing of start-up companies in industrial parks in America and other countries.

Mr. Manukian is a partner in Frontier Enterprises (Munich, Germany) which co-ordinates technology transfers from West to East. Projects range from telecommunications infrastructure interface to the management of basic energy infrastructure financing and rehabilitation and/or Greenfield building of new critical modules or facilities.

Mr. Manukian joined in July 1996 the London based investment banking firm of Ermgassen & Co. (SFA, IMRO, IAIB) as a Partner with primary responsibilities in the CIS and near eastern countries for cross-border M&A advisory services.

Since 2001 Mr. Manukian has completed several project finance assignments in Eastern European emerging markets for the total value of attracted funds, both equity and debt, of over $900 million US