Vasily Tolmachov was born in Moscow in the twilight years of the Soviet Union, and has subsequently spent most of his peripatetic professional and personal life in Central and Eastern Europe, East and Southeast Asia and Africa.  Although trained formally in accounting and political science at the University of Washington (Phi Beta Kappa), Vasily has worked extensively on infrastructure finance, energy and telecommunications projects, which have included presidential education initiatives in Tanzania, a subsea fiber optic cable in East and southern Africa, a direct sovereign wealth fund investment in a previously closed market, and many other international infrastructure and financing projects, often with significant developmental components.  The thread common to all of these projects is the requirement for creative financing solutions for energy and development projects with multiple stakeholders and complex success criteria.

In the course of his career, Vasily has worked and partnered with grant-making and operational development organizations such as Phelps Stokes, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa and the International Senior Lawyers Project, with international financial organizations such as the International Finance Corporation and major executive agencies such as the U.S. Departments of State and of Commerce, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.  Vasily’s diversity and depth of experience provides cricial perspective in a variety of development projects.

Vasily currently lives in Washington, DC and is a Senior International Projects Manager in the Major Projects group at Baker & McKenzie, LLP, the world’s largest international law firm.