The Council - Edition 3 (2008-2009)
A voluntary honorary Superbrands Council is formed annually, comprised of highly recognized professionals with a deep appreciation of the business environment, specialized in marketing, communication and business administration and reputed representatives of business media.
Adrian Preda
Chief Creative Partner Tempo Advertising
Adrian has worked for twelve years in advertising (copywriter based): Creative Director Graffiti BBDO (Romania), McCann
Erickson Zagreb (Croatia), Leo Burnett (Romania).
He has received more than 50 national and international (Epica, NYF,Golden Drum) advertising awards.
In 2005 and 2006, Adrian was also a member of the jury of New York Festivals.
Adrian is passionate about advertising, SF & Fantasy literature and football. He is married and has two children.
Beatrice Danis
Managing Partner BrandTailors
In ten years of advertising experience in both local and global agencies – JWT, Graffiti/BBDO, Lowe/GGK, Tempo, McCann Erickson, Beatrice made it up to the Account Director title.
Her dedication and commitment for integrated communication process paid off three years in a row (2005 -2007) when she was awarded with a Gold & Silver Effie for brands like Kandia, Rom and Grania. For the entrepreneurial attitude shown while working with McCann Erickson, Beatrice was appointed in 2004 Managing Partner at BrandTailors, which become later on one of the most notorious brand consultancy companies on the Romanian market.
Brian Davies
President British Romanian Chamber of Commerce
Brian was born and grew up in Bristol and graduated in 1972 at University College, Cardiff, in Accountancy and Law.
Qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1976, he became a partner in a large provincial firm of Chartered Accountants in 1979.
It was during this period that he met John Sanders and decided to move into industry.
He joined the Plastics Packaging Industry in 1982 with Sanders Polyfilms Ltd, a SME. Sanders Polyfilms Ltd makes and sells Collation Shrink film.
Brian became Chairman in 1989 and in 1999 together with the two other working Directors processed and implemented a Management Buyout.
In 2000 Sanders Polyfilms established Romfilms SRL, a SME in Romania, and in August, after shipping their own machinery & equipment over to Arad where the facility is based, recruited & trained local staff, production started in earnest.
Brian joined the Board of Directors of the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce in 2004, became the Chamber’s Honorary Treasurer in 2005, Vice Chairman in 2006 and elected as its Chairman in 2007.
Brian is Chairman of the Fundraising Committee of the Hospices of Hope charity, is a Board member of the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation in Romania and is involved in several other charitable organisations both in the UK and abroad.
Brian has been married for 34 years to Marilyn and they have 2 children, Gareth and Bethan, and two grandchildren. Brian’s personal goals for 2008 are to improve his golf and enjoy time with his grandchildren.
Coca Cascaval
General Manager Antibiotice Iasi
Coca Cascaval became the General Manager of Antibiotice in April 2008. After graduating from the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry, majoring in Chemical Organic Technology, Mrs. Cascaval began her career at Antibiotice as a chemical engineer within the Penicillin Plant, further becoming head of the Ointment and Suppository Plant.
She obtained the MBA diploma in 1998 and was appointed Marketing and International Relations Director, a position she filled until the end of April 2008. Coca Cascaval is a doctor in the field of Biotechnology and holds a letters patent in this domain.
Her professional evolution at Antibiotice coincides with the accelerated development of the company and its enhanced position as an important player on both the domestic and the external markets. The Antibiotice brand has become prestigious for pertners in over 40 countries worldwide, on five continents.
Coca Cascaval brought a significant contribution to a series or noteworthy achievements such as: Antibiotice’ s rising evolution and the constant position in the Top 10 pharmaceutical producers active in Romania, launching successful brands of pharmaceuticals and establishing the company as the leading Romanian produces of anti-infectives.
Cristina Bold
Head of Communications Millennium Bank Romania
Cristina Bold has been working in the communication field for 11 years.
Cristina’s current responsibilities as Head of Corporate Communications for Millennium Bank promote the business objectives.
Cristina coordinates the external and internal PR, special events, corporate social responsibilities activities and advertising.
Before joining the Millennium Bank team, Cristina was Communications and PR Director for Citibank Romania and, before that, PR Manager for HVB Bank Romania, responsible for the merger communication of HVB Bank and Banca Tiriac.
Cristina started as a journalist and her professional experience also includes roles such as PR Manager for Ogilvy Group and PR Manager for Rompetrol, in charge with defining the first consistent internal communication strategy for the entire oil and gas group.
Cristina Osiescu
Marketing Manager MOL Romania Petroleum Products
Cristina is Marketing Manager of MOL Romania since July 2004, previously Marketing Manager of Sensiblu since 2002.
More than five years background in advertising, for some of the main agencies (DDB, McCann Erickson, Saatchi&Saatchi) and some of the best brands (McDonald’s, Porsche Romania, Boots, Opel, L’Oreal, P&G etc).
Cristina’s main achievements include launching and marketing two of the most successful loyalty programs in Romania, for Sensiblu and MOL – MultiBonus, launching the websites of Sensiblu and MOL in Romania and developing a new local brand- MiniBlu, as well as enhancing the image, awareness and business results of the two growing retail networks, through integrated marketing activities.
Cristinel Popa
General Manager DHTUPC Romania
Cristinel Popa is Founder & Managing Director of FOCUS SAT ROMANIA SA, launched in November 2004 as the first digital platform for direct-to-home (DTH) services in Romania. During the period 1998-2001, he had been President of S.C. UNICLUB MULTIMEDIA S.R.L. (Uniplus Radio, the first private radio station in Romania).
Since 1997 up to the present time, Mr. Popa is President & CEO of EASTERN SPACE SYSTEMS, one of the first private satellite communication companies in Romania.
During the period 1992-1995, he was Secretary General (COO) of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, activating as a special correspondent and representative of the company in different international organizations, conferences and seminars.
Former Vice-president of the Counsel of Honor of the Romanian Press Club, Cristinel Popa is Member of IPI -The International Press Institute. Cristinel Popa’s career also includes activities such as Senior Editor at Radio News Romania and main columnist of the weekly magazine “The Economic Messenger”, published by the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Daniel Apostol
Head Editor Money Channel
Daniel has graduated from the Romanian-Canadian MBA program, and also graduateed the State University (Faculty of Engineering) of Suceava.
Daniel star journalism back in 1991, as radio-news speaker and then he developed his career following some BBC school of Journalism and Reuters Training Programs. For almost nine years, he developed a radio- journalism career working with ProFm, BBC World Service or Radio Free Europe’s newsrooms.
Completing an internship program, Daniel worked with some newsrooms in United States the most important being his Voice of America broadcaster length of service during the 2000 Election Campaign.
From 1999, Daniel has been contributing to the development and growth of some Romanian business magazines, as “Capital”, “Fapte”, “Banii Nostri” or “InvestRomania”. In 2006, Daniel became the first editor-in-chief of the very first ROmanian business TV channel, The Money Channel, bringing as important contributions to the development of the editorial team and alos to the editorial content.
Daniel is also a ten year experienced marketing-communication and journalism trainer and he delivers specific training programs to the corporate environment customers.
Daniela Capitanu
Brand Manager Business Press Publimedia
Daniela joined PubliMedia in February 2006 as brand manager for “The ONE”; Magazine.
Few months later she started to work as brand manager for “Ziarul Financiar”. In March 2007, Daniela became brand manager for the business press division that includes Ziarul Financiar, BUSINESS Magazin. Now she has in charge four publications: ZIARUL FINANCIAR, BUSINESS Magazine, Gandul and ProSport.
She started as marketing assistant at Flamingo Computers and continued with the position of Brand Manager for Capital weekly newspaper.
Daniela has six years experience in marketing and more than four in publishing.
Diana Klusch
Communication Director A&D Pharma
Diana Klusch is presently the Communication Director of A&D Pharma, the Dutch holding company that owns the largest integrated pharmaceutical wholesale, sales and marketing (Mediplus) and retail (Sensiblu) business in Romania.
Prior to this position, Diana worked as Group External Relations Manager in Procter&Gamble, where in her last assignment she handled the external communication for Gillette, Braun and Oral Care divisions.
She started her 13 yearcareer in Procter&Gamble Balkans as Assistant Brand Manager for the hair care brands, launching and managing on the local markets international brands as Head&Shoulders and Pantene. In 1997 Diana made a career change, starting the Public Affairs function for P&G in the Balkans, and then moving to the newly formed External Relations Department in 2000.
Throughout the time she managed both Brand and Corporate communication for the Balkans region, handling Corporate programs as P&G 2000:” A computer for a better future” the P&G Civic Education program “Learn to change the world” or Brand programs as Pantene Beauty Awards.
Diana is an Economist by education, having a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Specialisees in International Commerce from Ecole Superieure des Affaires in Grenoble, France.
Doina Ciomag
Executive Director Foreign Investors Council
Doina Ciomag’s background is in economics and she has an Executive Master in Business Administration with Washington University-USA from which she graduated in 1996.
Doina’s expertise and professional career is related to the lobbying and management consultancy services.
In 1996 she accepted the challenge to organize and manage the newly established foreign investors association named Foreign Investors Council.
After 11 years of passionate work, by Doina’s leadership the Foreign Investors Council is widely recognized as one of the most respected and influential lobbying associations in Romania, whose observations are accurate and whose recommendations are reasoned and sound.
Doina Ciomag’s expertise in the management consultancy is related to the position of Senior Consultant she had in 1991-1995 with the German firm Roland Berger & Partner, the two short assignments she had with Larive as responsible for the Investment Fund Eurobalance and with Deloitte&Touche as responsible for the companies’valuation projects.
Emanoil Viciu
General Manager Teraplast
Emanoil Viciu has been the General Manager of Teraplast Plc since 1990; he is also the President of the Council of Administration.
Throughout his activity, Emanoil Viciu ensured the evolution of Teraplast from a public company to a company listed at Bucharest Stock Exchange, presently being the manager of a business of more than 70 million Euros per year and the leader of a team of more than 680 employees.
Viciu Emanoil has graduated from the Politechnical Institute in Iasi, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Specialty – Organic Chemical Technology.
He speaks French, Italian, Hungarian and English.
He is married and has one daughter.
Gabriel Biris
Lawyer, Managing Partner Biris Goran
Gabriel Biris is the managing partner of Biris Goran, the law firm which he founded together with three colleagues in 2006 and has now more than 30 lawyers.
Gabriel is a graduate of Electronics and Telecommunication Faculty and of the Faculty of Law.
He has previously worked with Coopers&Lybrand, Haarmann Hemmelrath and Salans.
Gabriel is specialized in taxation and is considered by Chambers&Partners the”undisputed leader in the tax field” with an important contribution to introduction of flat tax in Romania.
He also deals a lot with mergers & acquisitions.
Gabriel has published numerous articles on tax matters, focusing on improving the tax legislation.
Marian V. Popa
Managing Director CEE Endava Limited
Marian (Mike) Popa started his career within the Romanian Chamber of Commerce. In 1983 he took over the management role in Rank Xerox Ltd – Romania and Moldova, running this company as General Manager until 1996. In September 1996, he took over the role of general manager Romania and Republic of Moldova of ICL, a British IT company. ICL was later taken over by Fujitsu Services, so Marian moved into the position of CEO Fujitsu Services Romania and Moldova where he stayed until 2003.
In 2004 he took on a new challenge – to grow with a couple of business associates from the UK, Moldova and Romania a relatively small software development company green-fielded in Moldova into one of the most important players in CEE – Endava was born.
Now Marian Popa is heading the CEE arm of Endava Limited, a company which reached last fiscal year close to 500 people spread over three countries and seven locations, growing at a pace of 40% year on year.
In 1994 Marian was designated by the Romanian Press as the Businessman of the Year.
He is one of the founding members of several NGO’s like the “Foundation for the Medieval Art Festival in Sighisoara”, “The American Chamber of Commerce” and “AOAR” and many others.
Mihaela Gorodcov
General Manager IDG Romania
In Romania, IDG stands for the market leader, both through the editing of three reference publications and a wide range of activities, such as editing of catalogues, supplements, 12 newsletters, specialized sites and the organization of the most important IT&C event of the year RoCS (Romanian Computer Show), now at its 15th edition. As directly implicated in this field, I wrote all along this period hundreds of articles and editorials.
In 1997, I took part in the elaboration of the National Strategy for an Informational Society, as Director of a specialized press group and vice-president of the Association for Information and Telecommunications Technology alike. I have constantly pleaded for interdisciplinarity and the message of use, without IT becoming a purpose itself, but only a means for knowledge and education improvement.
Mugurel Radulescu
Public Affairs & Communications Manager Romania & Republic of Moldova Coca-Cola Hellenic Romania
Mugurel Radulescu is passionate about ethical Public Relations and proud to support the sustainable development of industry efforts towards packaging recovery and recycling.
Very successful in most PR areas, Mugurel is currently the Public Affairs & Communications Manager Romania & Republic of Moldova at Coca-Cola Hellenic Romania (since 2001), Chairman of the Board at Eco-Rom Ambalaje (The Green Dot) (since 2003) and Chairman of the Board at Romanian Soft Drinks Association (since 2006).
He has also been a Political Analyst at European Commission Delegation in Romania (1999-2001) and an International Relations journalist for “Adevarul”; Daily between 1990 and 1998.
Mugurel holds a PhD in Political Sciences from “National School for Political and Administrative Studies”; in Bucharest, an IPR Diploma from the “Institute of Public Relations” (UK) and a Professional Diploma in Management from the “Open University Business School”; (UK) through CODECS Romania. Mugurel is married and has one daughter.
Paolo Chighine
Director of Communication Enel Romania
At Enel Romania, Paolo implements external and internal communications strategies, promoting the company’s image through several means including sponsorships and advertising.
He is also in charge of the Enel Romania CSR programmes. Paolo is Enel Cuore representative for Romania, which is the charity organization of Enel group.
Before joining Enel Romania, Paolo was Communication manager for Enel in Russia and Chief e-learning editor for Sfera, the Enel learning company.
Prior to join Enel, he worked in the new media department of BNL – actually part of the BNP Paribas group. Paolo was also e-learning and Communication Contract Professor in university courses and masters for the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and other academic Institutions.
He published articles about communication and e-learning on Italian and international reviews.
Paolo received his BA in Communication Sciences from “La Sapienza” University of Rome in 1998.
Paolo was born in Rome in 1966.
He is married.
Radu Craciun
Chief Investment Officer Interamerican Pensions
During the past ten years, Radu was successively the Head of equity research in ABN Amro Securities and the Head of financial markets research in ABN AMRO Bank.
During this period, he worked both on the local and on the international financial markets. In his latter capacity as part of ABN’s global research network he has provided research materials on the stocks listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange and, later on, the macroeconomic developments in Bulgaria or Kazakhstan.
Previously, between 1992 and 1997, Radu acted as business consultant working among others for Roland Berger &Partners Strategy Consultants.
Radu Craciun is a guest speaker of Executive MBA provided by the IMD Lausanne as well as of the local Executive MBA provided by ASSEBUS.
Radu is a founding member and has just taken over the rotating presidency of the Romanian Association of Financial and Banking Analysts.
Radu graduated from the Aircraft Building Faculty in 1986, attending also a number of postgraduate studies: a Master degree with the University of Hertfordshire (1993) and an Executive MBA provided jointly by ASE and University of Washington (1998).
Rosmarin Munteanu
Head of Brand Management and PR Cefin Romania
Since September 2003, Rosmari Munteanu has been the head of the marketing department of Cefin Romania, focusing since 2005 on brand management and PR. She is responsible for the creation and the implementation of the brand and PR strategies of the company, including the CSR projects. She also manages the marketing budgets of all the operational divisions of Cefin and supports sales by organizing commercial and PR events.
Rosmari joined Cefin Romania in 1996 to perform management duties in sales for some of the operative divisions getting experience in marketing as well.
Rosmari Munteanu graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1982. She is fluent in English and French.
Ruxandra Badila
Marketing and Business Development Director PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania
Before joining PwC, Ruxandra was the Executive Director of the Foreign Investors Council in Romania, where she contributed significantly to establishing the FIC as one of the main dialogue partner for the Government.
Previously, Ruxandra was the Head of the Socio-Economic Department of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Director of the World Bank School Rehabilitation Project. She holds a Ph.D. from Ecole des Mines de Paris.