Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2008

Columbus investment market wizard

Belarus native Vad Yazvinski endeavors to persevere and reach goals in investment world

When Vad Yazvinski came to the U.S. from Belarus in 2001, he had $200 and a promised dishwashing job at a North Carolina country club.

Things have changed in a relatively short time.

The 28-year-old is now chief investment officer at The Jordan Company in Columbus. Before that, he worked his way up from financial analyst to manager of corporate strategy at TSYS in less than four years.

Web site viewers check out his investment strategies on MSN Money's Strategy Lab, a stock-picking challenge where six top traders run mock portfolios and detail their moves.

Inevitably, the road to Yazvinski's success involved barriers -- including limited English, no friends and no money. It also took losing thousands of dollars in investments and working more than 80 hours a week as a dishwasher, waiter and valet care attendant. "I think good things come to people who look for them," Yazvinski said. "Everything I achieved, no one gave it to me. I worked for it. You can build a life. If you just sit there and wait for somebody to give you something, it won't happen."

Journey to America

Yazvinski was born in 1980 in Nesvizh, Belarus, an old city in the Minsk Province. The Eastern European country was under Soviet rule for about 70 years before it declared its independence in 1991. Still, it retains close ties to Russia and its current president, Alexander Lukashenko, has implemented Soviet-era policies that control the economy, media, religion and more.

"They call it the last dictatorship in Europe," Yazvinski said.

As a young student, Yazvinski would frequently win competitions in geography and economics. But victory would mean sharing the glory with his classmates -- no matter how hard he worked to excel.

"It was rough. I'm a very driven person," Yazvinski said. "Everybody has to be sort of equal. You can't stand out."

"You'd get recognition, but that's it," he added. "It didn't lead to anything." So after he graduated from college in Belarus, the barely 21-year-old Yazvinski decided to leave his parents and younger brother and move to the U.S. through an international students program.

He didn't know anyone when he arrived in New York City. He had $200 in his pocket -- half of which he spent on a one-way Greyhound ticket to North Carolina the next day.

He travelled to the town of Highlands, a small community in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. He was set up through the program to work for the summer at one of the country clubs in town, where the current population is a little more than 1,100 residents year-round.

"I did every job possible," Yazvinski said.

He started as a dishwasher and worked other jobs including valet parking attendant and waiter. Yazvinski would rack up 80 to 90 hours a week working.

After a few months, he moved onto another country club in town. That's where he met George Shook, general manager of Wildcat Cliffs Country Club.

Yazvinski was working as a dishwasher when Shook asked him to help on the operations side of the country club. Within a year, Yazvinski was promoted to clubhouse manager.