Ivaylo Piskov, piskov.net

Portfolio

Here's a list of the major areas of my expertise and professional involvements presented as a word cloud.

Here's the same list in no particular order:
Trading Systems and Platforms, GUI, SDLC, Web Development, SOA, Career Development, Software Development, Product Management, Agile Project Management, Scrum, People Management, IT Management, Communication Skills, Offshore Teams Management, Software Design, Leadership.

This list only provides a peek into my professional background. If you are interested in more details or would like to see my resume, please let me know.

Interests & Involvements

This is a list of the things that I am passionate about, again in no particular order. Click a link to jump to the topic or just scroll below to see them all.

Bulgarian Cuisine, Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, Bulgaria, ELS, Web and the Internet, GUI & UX, Startups & Angel Investing, Email Efficiency, Coaching and Workshops, Whisky, Trading platforms, Career Development, Leadership & Education, MENSA

Bulgarian Cuisine

Bulgarian cuisine is not your ordinary cuisine. Bulgarian food is unique. Gourmets all over the world have been attracted for ages by the culinary temptations that Bulgaria offers. Cooking traditions in Bulgaria are centuries old. They have been kept alive by passing the unique Bulgarian recipes from parents to children and grandchildren. I can go on and on forever... As you can tell Bulgarian food is my passion. I love to cook Bulgarian food and I also love to tell others about Bulgarian food. If you are interested in finding out more about it, feel free to check out Find BG Food website or buy one of my Bulgarian cookbooks.

Lactobacillus Bulgaricus

Bulgarian yogurt is one of the things that make Bulgarians proud to call themselves Bulgarians. It is their exclusive invention and heritage that dates back many centuries. A mildly sour-tasting yogurt, kiselo mlyako is undoubtedly the best and the healthiest of all dairy products that are available to consumers nowadays. And Lactobacillus Bulgaricus is solely responsible for that. To find out more about it or to learn how to make your own Bulgarian yogurt, visit bacillusbulgaricus.com

Bulgaria

Bulgarians have always been lighthearted people and that had helped them survive through several lengthy yokes. We have learned to face life and death with a smile on our faces and this way we are able to always get the best out of life. And if we can't - then we just laugh about it. A few statistics show that Bulgarians are Europe's unhappiest people, but try asking us how we feel, and we'll tell you that we feel great! Then we will invite you home to a rakia with shopska salad. If you don't want to take my word, see for yourselves at onlyinbulgaria.com.

ELS Plovdiv

The English Language School Plovdiv is where I spent some of the best years in my life. The school is iconic in Bulgaria and I was lucky enough to get in. My time there was a defining part of my life. I made some of my best friends there and I learnt some valuable lessons too. I have always tried to stay close to the school and the people there and in an effort to do so, I helped establish PELSA, it's alumni association. We initially built PELSA with the goals to support ELS Plovdiv, its students, faculty, and programs. Soon after its creation though its huge success and rapid expansion into a global organization needed us to take a broader approach in order to facilitate and encourage participation by all alumni in the worldwide ELS Plovdiv community. PELSA currently spans more than 30 clubs located in more than 15 countries. If you are interested in finding more about it, or if you are an alumnus who wants to join us, please visit PELSA website.

Web and the Internet

I've worked with the Internet since the week it was created. There is hardly a technology out there that uses the internet that I haven't touched. However my passion is building dynamic web applications, frontend to backend. I love doing this and I am very good at it. I don't think of it as work, I consider it a hobby. The exceptional quality of my work is widely recognized by the people I've worked with. If you want to find out more about this, please feel free to browse my portfolio page.

GUI & UX

I am involved in many UX and UI design workgroups and committees, the reason for which being my deep understanding of user experience concepts, best practices and real world applications. I able to spot the flows in existing UIs and to suggest and implement improvements that save time and frustration. My GUI skills are also on a very high level, which simply means that I can see what looks good and what does not look so good.

Startups & Angel Investing

I am heavily involved with activities in the domains of angel investing, business accelerating, and startups. You never know where the next big thing will come from so it helps to be in the center of all the action and be there when it happens. Actually that's not true - I can always recognize the next big thing when I see it. A few examples from my experience - Google Analytics, bitly, Facebook. If you are interested in investment opportunities, please let me know.

Email Efficiency

We spend awful lot time in front of email every day. Most of it reading messages that other people thought we need to reed. This needs to change. I only want to read email that I think it's important for me to read. That's how Email On Demand came to life. EOD is a revolutionary way to communicate via email. I can't share much here as we are still in the development stage in this proprietary way of communicating but if you want in on the action, do not hesitate to drop me a line.

Coaching and Workshops

I spend some of my time delivering skills coaching sessions, talks and workshops. These address a wide range of topics and are tailored to fit the needs of a wide range of groups too (students, entrepreneurs and businessmen). Topics include career management, time management, decision making, persuading people, strategic thinking, negotiating, motivating, goal setting, giving efficient feedback, global collaboration (i.e. doing business in), managing your manager, retaining employees and more.

Whisky

I am a vivid whisky enthusiast. I have a very nice collection of various single malts and blends, the only problem with which is that it constantly shrinks in volume. I am a relatively constant fixture on the whisky scene in New York, London, Islay, Luxembourg and any other place within easy reach. My favorite places, which I highly recommend you visit, are the Brandy Library in Tribeca, New York, the Boisdale in London (the one closer to Chelsea), and the entire island of Islay, Scotland. Favorite dram - yet to be discovered but I have a special place in my heart for Caol Isla rare auld editions.

Trading platforms

I have a vast experience in building trading platforms. For the past so many years I've been heavily involved in building up proprietary trading software from the ground up in more than one area - securities, fixed income, investment management, etc. The experience includes all stages of the SDLC - from getting business requirements to creating front to back end systems to ensuring continuous global support.

Career development, Leadership & Education

Future leaders are shaped up today so why not take part of it? I know it's the thought that counts but I think it's the action that counts even more. I do a lot of career development work, leadership training, recruitment, university admissions work, interviewing, coaching, etc. I have also lectured various groups on a range of topics, including choosing the right college, career development, efficient time management, using MS Outlook to increase efficiency, etc. Let me know if you want to arrange a lecture with your team or group.

MENSA

I've been an active MENSA member for a very long time. Just for the record, I have an IQ of 182. This is a statistic, it doesn't mean I was a genius by birth :)

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Short Bio

I was born on January 1st in the town of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The year is intentionally omitted - I think wisdom comes with experience, not with age. I was raised by my grandparents, Ivanka and Stoyu, in the town of Kazanlak, a beautiful town situated in the middle of the World famous Valley of Roses, full with history and strong traditions. It is my grandparents to whom I owe most of the personal values that I hold today - they taught me to be inquisitive, hardworking, competitive and loyal.

In my teen years I moved to the town of Plovdiv to live with my parents. There I studied in one of the most prestigious and certainly the most iconic Bulgarian school, the Plovdiv English Language School. During the 5 unforgettable years there I met some of my best friends and had some of the most incredible and unforgettable moments in my life.

After the ELS, I enrolled at the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, where I got my Masters degree in Economics. Again, studying there was a wonderful experience but what was more education was the placed I lived during my university years. Known as Students Town (Студентски град), this medley of a campus has provided me (and everyone there) with more educational experiences than attending several universities. I believe that there is no other place in the world which can prepare you for the real life better than Students Town. To really understand what I mean though you have to experience it yourself. There, I met the most important person in my life - my wife Alexandra.

Another five years down the road, feeling a lot wiser, I moved to the US to study Computer Science at Brown University. Needless to say the opportunity to attend an Ivy League University was incredible. Brown is known as one of the most liberal schools in the US and has been voted the school with the happiest students on more than one occasion. I treasured every moment spent there and I can frankly say that one of my best memories are from my years at Brown.

The time spent at Brown U quickly flew away and before I knew it, I found myself living in New York and working for one of the top banks on Wall Street - Goldman Sachs. The job with GS turned out to be very rewarding in any sense of the word. A company of more than 30k people is an interesting place to work. I quickly gained a ton of experience - technical, business, personal and much more. I started as an Analyst and quickly moved up the company ladder to Executive Director.

It is always difficult to leave the place you've called home for 12 years, so when time came to leave NY and move to London, I wasn't, to say, ecstatic. But then the happiest moment of my life happened - the arrival of our daughter, Emma. We love and treasure every moment with her however gratifying or difficult it is.

The story doesn't end here; it just waits to be finished at a later point. Some time when daddy has a bit of free time and more importantly when he manages to get his laptop back from the little hands of a very technology-oriented Emma.