About the only word on doing a "conversion" from 1e to 2e is from John Wick, and that's pretty much "just rebuild your 1e character concept using 2e rules."

There's a lot of stuff from 1e (especially once you start involving the supplements) that just doesn't carry over to 2e.  Glamour for instance works entirely differently between editions, and there's a number of Advantages in 1e that don't really have a 2e equivalent (Appearance) or have wildly different costs and/or functions (Legendary Trait is an example of higher cost and different function in 2e).  To say nothing of how different skills are between the two editions; with 2e skills being far more consolidated as opposed to the frankly clunky skill/knack approach that 1e used.

Truthfully, character creation in 2e is so much simplier overall and a starting Hero is generally far more capable than their 1e counterparts that you really are better off just rebuilding the character from scratch.

For NPCs, the process would be a lot simplier, especially if they're antagonists as they really only have two traits, Strength and Influence.

My suggestion would be to eyeball those traits, selecting the Villain's Strength based upon how personally capable they are in a confrontation, and then decide their Influence based upon how sociallyi capable they are, with their final Villain Rank weighing in at the degree of threat you feel that Villain is.  And then just pick the Advantages you feel are most appropriate.

So someone like Giovanni Villanova would probably weigh in at about Strength 8 (he's a formidable duelist, but not the greatest in Vodacce, much less Theah) while his Influence would also be at least 9 (lots of pull in Vodacce as well as abroad thanks to merchant contracts), putting him at Villainy Rank 17.  For Advantages, he'd certainly have Duelist Academy (though his family's style has yet to get the official treatment, so give him Ambrogia for now) and Fencer at the very least, possibly even Come Hither to account for his darkly dangerous charm.  Which in sum I think is about right for a major nemesis that the Heroes are going to have to work their butts off if they want to defeat him.

Now someone like L'Empereur would only have a Strength of 4 (he's pretty much a pushover in a fight), but his Influence would be 15 (ruler of Montaign and all), setting him at Villiany Rank 19, which fits for a major mover-and-shaker that in the 1e timeline only got deposed due to a major uprising by the peasantry that was sparked off by a situation completely outside of his immediate control.  He'd of course have Brute Squads with the Guard quality to absorb damage on his behalf while he flees any sort of direct confrontation.

Fauner Posen on the other fist would have a very high Strength as she's a fearsomely capable warrior, probably a 10 at least.  However, her Influence is pretty limited, so we'll say she's got a 6 in Influence (she's an undisputed ruler of the strongest military force in Eisen, but that's about it), giving her a final Villain Rank of 16.  Again, she'd have Duelist Academy with Eisenfaust as her style, probably Brusier as well as Indomitable Will and Staredown for Advantages, making her a very credible threat in a direct fight.

For Captain Charles du Cheveliar, main antagonist from the first part of the Erebus Cross adventure trilogy, he's a very capable swordsman, probably setting him at about Strength 6 and is a well-regarded Musketeer captain with decent connections, so I'd say his Influence is a 4 (mostly used to call upon Musketeer reinforcements and the occaisional political favor), putting him at Villain Rank 10, which actually makes him a pretty good starter Villain for a group of freshly made Heroes.

Donovan hit the nail on the head: making NPCs is simple (and even that doesn't sum it up), and making PCs is far easier than 1st Edition.

While a number of things have not gotten the 2E treatment, there are a number of people on the Forum that have worked to make these conversions to allow certain aspects of the 1st Edition (magic, swordsman schools, etc), fit in mechanically. It's also not hard to make some of these yourself or, in the case of NPCs, just grant a specific (yet consistent) ability. 

A simple rule for a villain's special abilities: when in doubt, it costs a Danger Point.  Anything else just costs a raise.  Simple.  Done.  No sense in cooking up whole sets of mechanics just for one guy or gal.  Just give them a unique ability they can tap into and be done with it.  If anyone gives you lip, ask why they expect the villain to play fair.

On a related topic, I do wish H&V had included a bit more granular scales for Strength and Influence.  I find the whole Villainy Rank chart to be vague to the point of useless when it comes to actually scaling villains.  There's a project for anyone interested in taking it up.

It´s impossible, but we tried this:

Strength: Sum the the highest Characteristic ( except Wit) + the two highest marcial skills.

Influence: Sum the the highest Characteristic ( except Strenght and Panache) + the two highest civil skills.

They were powerfull, but not for my players