Yavor Nikolov

Operating Partner | CEO | COO | Manufacturing | Supply Chain | Operational Excellence | Turnaround | Growth | Automotive | Aerospace | Electric Components | Medical Devices

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

About

Private Equity Operating Partner. International leader with 10+ years of P&L responsibility for manufacturing operations (1500+ employees, 200M+ USD annual revenue) in Automotive, Aerospace, Medical Device and Electric Components industries. Excellent track record in lean transformation of manufacturing organizations (turnaround and growth), sustainably increasing EBITDA, improving operational performance (safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory) and driving employee engagement in Asia, Latin America and Europe. Passionate about breaking silos across departments and hierarchies, mentoring, coaching, empowering and enabling career growth for employees. Developed internal successor and built strong talent pipeline in each role. Lived and worked in Eastern & Western Europe, USA, Mexico and China, fluent English, German, Spanish and Bulgarian, intermediate Mandarin and French.

Experience

  • Director | Operating Partner at The Carlyle Group
    Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr 1 mo

    Leading operations transformations across the industrial companies within Carlyle's European funds portfolio, including Lean Transformation, SIOP (Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning), Network and Footprint Optimization.

  • Dronamics (2 yrs 9 mos)
    • Advisor
      Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr 1 mo

    • Chief Manufacturing Officer | Manufacturing | Procurement | Aerospace | Cargo Drones | UAV | AAM
      Nov 2023 - Jul 2025 · 1 yr 9 mos

      Chief Manufacturing Officer, responsible for all manufacturing, supply chain management and procurement activities.

  • General Manager | Manufacturing | Operations | Procurement | Turnaround | Growth | Automotive at Sensata Technologies
    Apr 2019 - Oct 2023 · 4 yrs 7 mos

    General Manager with P&L responsibility for factory, providing sensors, electrical protection & control products and systems to the automotive, agriculture, construction, and medical device industries across the globe, 130M USD revenue, 1200 employees.

  • Siemens (Full-time · 6 yrs 1 mo)
    • CEO | JV | Manufacturing | Operations | Procurement | R&D | Growth
      Sep 2016 - Apr 2019 · 2 yrs 8 mos

      CEO / General Manager with Legal and P&L responsibility for Siemens Circuit Protection Systems (joint venture between Siemens and state-owned Shanghai Electric Company) with 900 employees and 75M USD annual sales in 30 countries. Responsibility includes manufacturing, R&D, technical sales and customer service for low voltage circuit protection products.

    • CFO & Supply Chain Director | Finance | Procurement | Operations | Manufacturing | R&D | Turnaround
      Apr 2013 - Sep 2016 · 3 yrs 6 mos

      CFO and Supply Chain Director with P&L responsibility for global lead factory Monterrey, delivering low-voltage products (molded case circuit breakers, miniature circuit breakers, enclosed safety switches and switchboards) to 60 countries, with 200M USD annual revenue and 1500 employees, incl. research and new product development.

  • Strategy Consultant | M&A | JV | Electric Protection | Medical Devices | Growth | Turnaround at Siemens Management Consulting
    Sep 2010 - Apr 2013 · 2 yrs 8 mos

    Led strategic projects for Siemens’ senior management, with focus on sales, go-to-market, restructuring and M&A / JV in Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, China and UAE. Expert for Sales-related methodologies (e.g. Market Transparency, Go-to-Market Strategy, Pricing). Key member of Recruiting team, passed extensive training and conducted 40+ consultant and associate interviews.