Employee Profile

Viliyan D

Name: Viliyan D.
Title: Laytime Operator
Career Area: Supply Chain & Logistics
Location: Varna, Bulgaria
Education: Bachelor degree in Port and Fleet Technology and Management

“Communicating with so many professionals and the chance to learn, develop and share is the greatest reward for me. This is the only way for a person to grow both in professional and in personal perspective.”


It seems like the majority of people nowadays forget the meaning of those two words. But they are a must for every human being to understand and follow, not only because the business demands each one of us as people to communicate and act with morality, but because of the normal existence in our society. I admire Cargill as a place where these values are recognized. Team work is the proper and only way to progress without any doubts. You can be assured that the maturity and professionalism of my colleagues is at the highest level in our branch. I have no words to express the joy to have the privilege to work and learn from these people. Every day is a challenge and that is the beauty of this business, to share and gain experience and doing this with the greatest people is a pleasure! To achieve your goals, the only thing you need to start pursuing is your wish! During my short tenure at Cargill, I already took part in a major project, had the opportunity to travel and to continuously grow by leveraging experience from my day-to-day contact with people, simply by striving to develop.

Describe your work responsibilities and the importance of your role.

Working as a Laytime Operator means to measure your exposure to time lost at ports. The person’s responsibilities include calculating and estimating the demurrage/dispatch at a port, invoice, follow-up and lead the negotiations with the counterparties until an agreement is reached. In addition the collaboration with the Vessel Operators, Finalization team and Accounting is essential in order to keep the Profit and Loss (PnL) of each voyage accurate and up-to-date.

Describe your day-to-day activities and the skills needed to perform well.

My day-today activities include reaching agreements of each case in a timely manner and preparing preliminary and final calculations as well as a laytime estimation for each voyage. As a person in direct contact with our customers you need to be persuasive, resourceful, patient, with attention to the detail, accurate, able to organize your time.

Describe your career path.

Where did you start and how did you get to where you are today? I started as a laytime and finalization operator dealing with petroleum barges, performing shipments only in Europe, for a year time I am currently dealing also with tankers transporting petroleum products and vegoils in Europe and the Americas. As described above, the path to progress rests only on ones desire to reach his goals.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

Communicating with so many professionals and the chance to learn, develop and share is the greatest reward for me. This is the only way for a person to grow both in professional and in personal perspective. Also the gratitude in one’s eyes when you help him cannot be replaced with anything.

Why did you choose to join Cargill and what keeps you here? In other words, how has a career at Cargill helped you to thrive?

Cargill is a place to work where one has the opportunity to develop and grow in any aspect. The people who want to make a change for good are recognized and encouraged to do so. As I am currently pursuing master degree, the knowledge acquired and the things I have seen are helping me a lot. The contact with people from all over the world is a great experience to get to know others differences and opinions and thus enriching my understanding for the global picture. Good practices seen every day and complicated cases, each different from the other is of a great value for one’s development.

What advice would you give someone interested in a career at Cargill like yours?

Have the thirst to learn, show the people that you are interested in what you do, be accurate, share your knowledge, show respect and smile.

Share an interesting tidbit about yourself such as hobbies, volunteerism, favorite foods or activities, accomplishments inside or outside of work.

It is a passion of mine since I was 13 years old. However, I do not have a hobby, but you might say I like to communicate with people from different professional fields and gain new knowledge. I have exercised various activities such as amateur theater, martial arts and dances. I participated in numerous student science workshops and at the international workshop of IAMU in 2012 my report was priced third in its section.