Director

Colonel Orlin Nikolov assumed the duties as Director of the Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence (CMDR COE) on 10 January 2019.

The mission of the CMDR COE is to act as a catalyst for the enhancement of NATO, NATO Nations’ and Partners’ capabilities in crisis management and disaster response operations through collaborative partnerships.

As a Director, Colonel Nikolov is responsible for developing and executing the Centre’s strategic objectives in line with organisation’s mission and vision. He is leading the process of preparing and implementing comprehensive activity plans, setting priorities and managing the process of elaboration for the CMDR COE’ Programme of work.

Colonel Nikolov previously served as Chief of Capabilities Branch, CMDR COE; Chief Expert in “Exercise and Training”, MOD; Senior Assistant in “Simulations” branch in the General Staff; Assistant in “Doctrines and training programs” branch in Training Directorate in the General Staff; Deputy Chief of National Center for Modeling and Simulations, Chief of AAR team - National Military Training Complex “Charalitza”; Head of Staff; Head of Technical Staff; Senior Technical Officer – Air Defense Unit.

Colonel Nikolov graduated in 1991 from the High military school “P.Volov”– Shumen, Bulgaria. In 2003 he earned his Master from National Defence College “G.S. Rakovski”-Sofia, Bulgaria. He completed Junior Staff Officer Course – Liptovski Mikulash, Slovakia in 2005, and Joint Specialized Operation Course in Joint Specialized Operation University, USA.  Colonel Nikolov has PhD in National Security presenting "Ways for improving of education and training for crisis management and disaster response”. He is an author of many articles and feature on Air Defense and Modeling and Simulations thematic. Colonel Nikolov is a member of distinguished NATO Modeling and Simulation Groups.

The main projects Colonel Nikolov was engaged with are the Establishment and development of National Centre for Modeling and Simulation “Charalitza”; Establishment and development of Integrated System for M&S in MoD; Project Manager for acquiring systems and tools for E&T (JCATS, VBS2, DITS, JEMM, JPECT, JEST, other); Project Manager of project for Establishment and development of CMDR COE; Project Manager of project for Establishment of South Eastern Europe Education and Training Network; Project Manager of project for Investigate and assess M&S Decision Making Support and Data Analysis platform for CMDR and Climate Change.