 Owner of ANA Holding George Copos is a Romanian businessman, especially known due to ANA HOLDING group of companies, which covers a rich area of activity: production and sale of electronic and appliance equipment, hotel industry, tourism, production of electric engines, road transport, investments in the sports area, financial investments, real estate industry. The first step in the business area was made in 1990, when George Copos together with his wife, Cristiana Copos, opened the ANA CO confectionary and afterwards the ANA PAN company. Little by little, the business expanded. In 1992 ANA ELECTRONIC was set up; it dealt with the import and sale of electronic and appliance equipment. After this, in 1993, George Copos became the main sponsor of the football club Rapid, one of the oldest and with tradition sports groups in Romania. After three years, ANA GROUP bought 51% of IMEP shares, a factory which made electric engines. Nowadays, ANA I.M.E.P. is the third factory in this area in Europe, since it exports more than 90% of its production, meaning more than 60 million euros annually. It followed, in the same year, the entry in the touristic and hotel industry. ANA HOTELS began in Poiana Brasov resort with “Sport”, “Bradul” and “Poiana” hotels, but, now, it includes “Crowne Plaza” and “Athenee Palace Hilton” five star hotels in Bucharest, and also two more hotels and the healthcare center ANA ASLAN HEALTH SPA (investment ended in 2004) in Eforie Nord resort. As a completion, in 1999, ANA HOLDING got also involved in the cable railway transportation with its ANA TELEFERIC project in Poiana Brasov resort, which includes reversible ropeways, telegondolas and ski-lifts. Other two important projects are ANA RESIDENCES and ANA TOWER established in 2008, which have as objective real estate business (both home and office spaces). As a result of all decision taken and all projects developed, according to Forbes magazine, in 2009 George Copos’ wealth was estimated to be around 200-210 million Euro. Top |
 Founder of Flanco and Sanador Florin Andronescu had his first working place as an engineer at I.M.S.A.T., an enterprise which had sites spread all over the country, after graduating the Faculty of Electrotechnics - Politehnica University of Bucharest in 1982. In 1990 he started focusing on a new idea: a retail company involving home appliance. So, he founded Flanco and became the CEO of Flanco Import-Export and Flanco International. Moreover, he had an ingenious idea about the implementation of consumer credit in 1994 in a potentially increasing market - there was a need for appliances, but people did not afford to buy them. As a result, Flanco began making small credits (for a period of less than half a year) from its own funds. This first home appliance retail company in Romania made a profit worth 25 times the amount invested. In 2002 he became CEO at Credisson International, and from 2005 to 2008 he was the Chairman of the Board of Cetelem SA. Currently, Florin Andronescu invests in businesses such as Sanador, a chain of medical centers, Kiwi Finance, a credit broker company and Sanas, a private insurance company. Sanador is well known on the local market, with a turnover of around 12 million euros. |
Top Management Coach Ian Duncan is an International Consultant on Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Development and a Top Management Coach. He has 44 years of experience concerning international firms both from the industry and the services area. He has also worked in the state sector, on missions under the European Union, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He has graduated from Oxford University with Honours and afterwards his work has taken him in countries such as France, Lithuania, Algeria, Malaysia and the USA. He is an expert on negotiations and also reorganizing entire departments. He has restructured the postal sector in Turkey, the department of finance of the FTSE Group. Due to his vast experience in auditing, reorganizing and coaching he will be talking on the topic “Value Chain Management”. |
 Co-founder of Autonom Rent-a-Car Dan Stefan, a Romanian businessman, together with his brother, Marius Stefan, are the founders of Autonom Rent A Car. The two brothers are the company's equal shareholders (50% each). For 6 years, Dan Stefan worked in France as a consultant, which helped him a great deal in the business startup and then in the successful development of the company. Autonom Ren A Car is a company that offers rent a car services at a national level. The company began its activities in January 2005, in Piatra Neamt, with an investment of approximately EUR 5,000, which included an initial car fleet of 5 units acquired through leasing and the creation of the company's headquarters.
At the end of 2005, the number of cars was 5 times larger. Furthermore, in the two years since it was opened, Autonom Rent A Car grew from a regional business to a national one. In 2006, several agencies were opened in Bacau, Iasi, Suceava, Galati, Constanta, Bucharest, in 2007 inTimisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Sibiu and Targu-Mures while today, the company has branches in Focsani, Ploiesti, Roman and Pitesti. |
 Owner of Drosa Mr. Peter Oostveen is currently majority owner and managing director of Drosa Imex, a Dutch – Romanian construction services company.
He arrived in Romania as a doctor in 1989 and was in charge of giving medical assistance during the revolution in December. His passion for architecture was what determined him to stay in Romania and build a business that focused on reconstruction. Ever since he is actively involved in supporting the Romanian society and culture. Among his achievements is worth mentioning the renovation of the National Museum. He also focused on hospital infrastructure and its logistics, and there construction and implementation.
Peter Oostveen has dedicated his time to students, by teaching at the Architecture University “Ion Mincu” and the Petroleum-Gas University in Ploiesti. |
Owner of Vesta Investment Radu Spirea is the founder and owner of Vesta Investment a 100% Romanian company established in 1994 and specialized in production of traffic safety equipment. Vesta is the biggest Romanian company of the traffic safety area and has over 200 employees and a turnover of over 10 million euro in 2008. Vesta does not run its business only locally but also exports in countries such as France, Spain and Turkey. Since 2003 it has a subsidiary in Sofia due to the numerous commercial relations with the neighbour country. Due to his experience in the traffic safety Radu Spirea is also a member of the Interministerial Council for Road Safety. |
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 Human Resources Director at Xerox CIT(Central Eastern Europe, Israel& Turkey)
HR Manager and LSS Deployment Manager ofXEROX Romania and Republica Moldova, coordinates the HR activity of XEROX in nine Eastern and Central EuropeanCountries, and also in Israel and Turkey , since 1st of October2008. Simona started working for XEROX in 1999 asan HR Specialist and in 2002 was promoted HR Manager for XEROX SEE( Bulgaria, Croatia,Slovakia and the Balkans). Since 2004 she has been successfully coordinatingthe HR and Lean Six Sigma department of XEROX Romania and Republica Moldova.With a degree in Economics, obtained in 1997 at the West University inTimisoara, Simona started her career in marketing and sales and before joiningXEROX she was an Accounting Manager in a recruitment agency. In 2009 shefinished her MBA at the Central European University. Simona Simion-Popescu is an HR Directorexperienced in multi-country environment, with sound business understanding andeducation. She also has serious expertise in project management and processimprovement using Lean Six Sigma methodologies. Her specialties are:Organizational development, Talent management, Change management, Culturaltransformation, Project management, Process improvement/Lean Six Sigma. Top |
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 Owner of Eurolines
DragosAnastasiu is the founder and current owner of Eurolines, a European trasportcompany focused on tourism. In 1982, DragosAnastasiu left Romania andmoved to Germany,where he studied medicine and started working as a medic. He entered thetransport business by chance, when he was asked by someone in Romania to help him bring a series of buses to Germany. Hesigned a partnership with the largest touring company in Europeat the time, Deutsche Touring. Although hedoesn’t have a recipe for success, the fact that he spoke both Romanian andGerman and that he knew both mentalities very well helped him a great deal inestablishing a successful business. As he stated himself,perseverance and reliability were essential in developing his business. Henever relied on credit and always paid his dues on time, both to businesspartners as well as to employees. After ten yearsof business experience, Dragos Anastasiu is the president of a group of 14companies, with 570 employees, a EUR 15 million turnover and a EUR 1 millionprofit. Top |
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 Founder of The Group
PR specialist Mihaela Nicola admits that acareer in PR wasn’t exactly what she chose to do from the beginning but rathersomething that resulted from a professional evolution. She started her activityin communication in 1991 at Grafitti BBDO and after that she ran the Ogilvy groupfor 10 years, between 1994 and 2004. In February 2005 she founded her ownconglomerate of communication agencies – The Group. She considers this to beher greatest achievement. The Group includes the Media Investmentagency, Brandstalk advertising agency and the PR Agency Nicola Porter Novelli.The latter took birth through a partnership with Porter Novelli , a prestigiousagency belonging to Omnicom. Mihaela Nicola considers that “the passionthat you have for work will someday make the difference”. Her first client was Shell Romania and she was in charge of its launchingcampaign in 1992. Her most beloved campaign remains the launching of Lukoil inRomania, which she managed with the help of actor Larry Hangman. Although, shealso adds that “the most important client is always the next”. Mihaela Nicola graduated in Mathematics at the University of Bucharest and in Communication and Public Relations at SNSPABucharest. She also has a master’s degree in Communication and Public Relationsat SNSPA. She is now a university lector at SNSPA. Miahela Nicola published a number of 4 books amongst which the first advertising manual in Romania (1997), and over100 press articles in specialized magazines. Top |
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Professor at CEU Business School Prof.Kisilowski’s is a professor at CEU Business School and co-founder of CEU BSInitiative for Regulatory Innovation – a network of researchers,businesspersons and policy-makers working on novel solutions to regulatorychallenges in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. His research interests includetheory of regulation, public management, and non-dogmatic approaches to publiclaw. He is a member of various other research initiatives, including the TobinProject at Harvard Business School.Already holding a Ph.D. from Warsaw University, he is currently completing a doctorate inlegal science (J.S.D.) at Yale Law School. Prof. Kisilowskidesigned and teaches a number of undergraduate and graduate classes, including Legal, Political and PolicyEnvironment of the Market (LPPE) –a course that integrates tools of legal, political-economic, and policyanalysis to help MBA and EMBA participants strategically manage theirinteractions with governments. This practical, problem-oriented approachevolved from his multidisciplinary graduate education, but also from an earlierexperience in his native Poland,where he co-founded and managed a number of educational NGOs. As a leader ofnationwide student association “Initiative of the Young,” he implementednumerous successful drug- and unemployment-prevention programs. Before joining CEU, Prof.Kisilowski taught at Yale University as well as atWarsaw University College of Technology and Business. He has consulted numerouspublic and nonprofit organizations, including the Secretariat-General of theEuropean Commission, Committee for Economic Development (Washington D.C.),and the Offices of the President and the Prime Minister of Poland. His book, Prawo Sektora Pozarządowego –Analiza Funkcjonalna (Law ofthe Nonprofit Sector - Functional Analysis), was published in 2009 byLexisNexis. Top |
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 Entrepreneur
Mike is an entrepreneur with over 10 years experience in investmentbanking, sales and consulting.
In 2006 Mike established Leo & Leo in Romania, providing management, brandconsulting, sales, event planning and PR services to clients such as Maserati, Segway,NetJets, PrivatSea, Sunseeker Yacths, Miss Universe and Rockstar Energy Drink.
From 2000 – 2006, Mike served as CEO of Pioneer TeleCare, an e-commerce companydistributing office products and other consumer goods. Annual revenues reached$2.5 million and the company employed 20 employees between its office in LosAngeles and India.
From 1998 – 2003, Mike was an Associate at WestPark Capital, The InterlinkGroup, Millennium Capital Partners, all a Los Angeles-based investment bankingfirms where his responsibilities included identifying and evaluating newinvestment opportunities and assisting clients with strategic alliances.
Mike holds a degree in Economics from Pepperdine University (Malibu,California), a Certificate in Negotiations, Arbitration, and Mediation fromPepperdine’s School of Law and has completed the Program on Negotiations forSenior Executives at Harvard. Mike completed studies in business, history andlaw in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Israel and Switzerland.
Since 2002, Mike has served on the Board of Directors and as the Director ofFundraising & Strategy for Blue Heron Foundation, a charitable organizationwhich has raised $600,000 for various projects benefiting Romanian orphans.
Born in Bucharest, Romania in 1977, Mike moved to Israel together with hisfamily in 1988 and later migrated to the United States in 1992. Mike is fluentin Romanian, Hebrew and English and has basic knowledge of French.
Mike was featured in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Malibu Times, China Central TV (CCTV), and in 2008, Ziarul Financiar (Romania’snumber 1 financial newspaper) named Mike one of the Top 1000 business people. Specialties: Brand consulting, sales,managment, PR, negotiations, due dilligence. Top |
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 Founder of Younique Wealth
Philip Judge is the founder and current owner of YOUnique wealth,a company that can best bedescribed as the world’s leading gold distribution and wealth education companyin the world, operating with distributors and customers in over 41countries. Philip has six successful start-ups to his name and todayhas active business interests and experience with over fifty nations spanningevery continent on earth. In the 1980s Philip undertook his first business venturewhen he established a film and video production and services company. In the 1990s he wrote and produced the documentary Millennium Money whichwon a first place Gold Award at the US International Film Festival and became abest-seller, changing the perspectives of hundreds of thousands. It was in the early 1990s that Philip began to form anidea which in time would become his second start-up. Today the Anglo Far-East Bullion Company is uniquely positioned as the world’s leadingprivate gold and silver custodial and banking company. The company basesits bullion operations from Zurich, Switzerland, and provides specialistbullion services to its institutional and high net worth clients around theworld. In 2003 Philip, together with his business partner,established the Anglo Energy Company. Anglo EnergyCompany owns and operates oil and gas assets onshore in the USA and hascontributed to several exploration and oil development projects over theyears. Finally, in 2006, Philip founded YOUnique as an ambitiousproject, aiming at eliminating poverty and stimulating entrepreneurship andaccumulation of wealth among the less fortunate from all over the world. Top |
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 Venture Capital Investor
Daniel Enache graduated in 2004 fromthe UniversitĂ Commerciale 'LuigiBocconi' in Milano, with a Bachelor in Economy for the Arts, Culture andCommunication. He then focused his attention to the Internet industry, where hewas the managing partner for the Sixtyfoureights Group, a company developing websites andinteractive online experiences for a variety of corporate customers. Starting from March 2004 and until now, he is a Member of the Board of Continental Hotels, a company that owns and operates an extensive set of hotel properties throughout Romania. Theyear 2006 brought a new adventure for Daniel Enache. He started investing inthe Venture Capital & Private Equity industry, setting up his own firm, Thousand Tiny Tigers. This company features a mix of venture financingapproaches: seed money fund, incubator, and late-stage fund. Recently, theinvestor announced the launching in private beta of Teacup, a social networkspecially created for people who enjoy reading books. In December 2009, alongwith Dorin Boerescu, he bought almost 80% in shares of 2parale.ro, a platformfor affiliate marketing. In November 2009, Daniel Enache invested in 15% ofbookblog.ro, the blog owned by Andrei Rosca. The young entrepreneur also holds25% of Bakemono Publishing and Development, an Internet publishing firm.Furthermore, for over 2 years, he is the Chief of Marketing & Business Development for Digital Data Tech, a company in theResearch industry, mainly focused on the study and application ofsemantic and data mining techniques. Top |
 HR Director at Smartree Luiza Banyai is currently HR Director at Smartree. Although she has graduated from the Politechnics University in Bucarest the career patch she has choosen was completely different. She started up as a HR Organizational Development Consultant at Connex, continued with Vodafone, Sensiblue, A&D Pharma and GTS Telecom. Luiza is not only a great HR manager but also a specialist in training. She helped reach the strategic objectives of the companies she has worked at by leading the development and implementation of specific and realistic recruitment and selection methods, employee relations programs and systems. Her specialties are development consultancy, performance management syste, coaching and training. |
 Dr. Sjoerd
Homminga is an international working trainer and certified mediator and is
acknowledged by the Mediation Council. He started his company in 1998 (www.edumonde.nl)
and since then he managed to become a well reputed trainer on mediation not only in the Netherlands, but espacially worldwide. He published several books on the subject and held workshops in international settings.Mediation is a
kind of compromising of a conflict where a neutral negotiator supports parties
to attain their mutual interest, reaching optimal results. Conflict management
and analyzing are complex processes and require a professional approach. By using
mediation, a legal procedure that takes a lot of time can be prevented. The
characteristics of mediation are: short, direct procedures; the parties
themselves decide the outcome; confidentiality on problems and parties. Top
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 Michael Schroeder began his career for Burda in 1999, and in 2002 he was handling the operations in Serbia. He was appointed
as General Manager of the Romanian branch in 2003. In his six years of running
Burda Romania, he managed to increase revenues by more than 400%. At the same
time, incomes that were generated from publicity were 7 times higher. With a
portfolio of 20 national and international magazines, Burda had, in 2008, the
largest offer of magazine titles on the market. One of the major challenge
during these years was the acquisition and integration of Casa Lux company. In
2009, Michael Schroeder left the position at Burda, focusing on future personal
projects.
Burda Romania is
part of BVO - Burda Verlag Osteuropa, the Eastern Division of Hubert Burda
Media, founded in the year 1995. BVO has over 200 magazines in Romania, Poland,
Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
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