Youlia Miteva

Born in Bulgaria and educated in Italy and the U.S., Youlia Miteva, 34, had a glamorous résumé even before she graduated from Wharton and the School of Engineering at Penn with a dual bachelor’s degree in finance management and management ­technology. Miteva began her Wall Street career as an analyst with storied boutique investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Now in her sixth year of running her own hedge fund firm, New York–based Proxima Capital Management, Miteva impresses investors with results — the main fund was up almost 80 percent, net of fees, in 2009 — and some are anxious to allocate more to her $350 million special situations fund. But portfolio manager Miteva is not in a rush to capitalize on her success; she knows the industry favors those who build smartly, not quickly.

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