Thomas Higgins

Thomas Higgins is a professional fund manager, entrepreneur and economic development specialist with more than 20 years of experience working with companies from various industries across the CEE region.

From 1993 to 2005 he was Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at the Bulgarian-American Enterprise Fund (BAEF), where he accumulated extensive experience investing in and developing Bulgarian SMEs. Mr. Higgins also served as an Executive Director at the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB), a start-up investment by BAEF focused on quasi-equity SME lending, which was sold for 42 times the invested money.

In 2005 Mr. Higgins co-founded the Balkan Accession Fund (BAF) (currently Axxess Capital), a EUR 110m private equity and mezzanine finance investment fund, primarily focused on helping successful Bulgarian and Romanian companies expand in the region.

He has held significant leadership positions in the Bulgarian business community, which currently includes board membership on the American University in Bulgaria, Fulbright Commission in Bulgaria and Teach for Bulgaria.

Mr. Higgins is an MBA graduate from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is proficient in Bulgarian.

Projects and Responsibilities: As a Partner аt Empower Capital, Thomas is engaged with deal sourcing and pipeline development.