Egbert Voerman

I am a citizen of the world having lived in Amsterdam, London and New York City. Currently I live in Sofia, Bulgaria with my wife and our 2 daughters. I graduated from the VU University in Amsterdam with a Master's degree in Financial Economics positioning me for a career in the banking sector. I started my career in earnest with ING Bank where I spent the first 10 years working in Acquisition Finance in various financial capitals of the world. With the onset of the financial crisis, I moved into Credit Restructuring which took me across Central and Eastern Europe. Currently I am responsible for the Wholesale Banking operations of ING Bank in Bulgaria. 8 years into my career I took a 6 months sabbatical to volunteer in an orphanage in the southwest of Guatemala, which instilled some much needed humility in me.

For lack of any other athletic talents I resorted to long distance running. My ambition is to one day run a marathon under 3 hours. Although I came close, at the pristine age of 44, this is becoming increasingly unlikely. I love to browse brick and mortar bookstores in search of inspiration and serendipity. One day, while looking for a book on time management, I came across the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. This book sparked my interest in Buddhist philosophy, which postulates that life is suffering. Buddhists also believe that the surest way to happiness is to make other people happy - and this is what I now strive to achieve in life.