At the same time, the future managers will be successful only if they know how to manage restructuring programs, considering many of the state-owned companies need to be streamlined.
They should have also worked in emerging countries or in the Central and Eastern European countries, believes German headhunter Werner Stein, who runs executive search company Stein&Partner, which posted EUR360,000 in revenue last year.
In his opinion, an MBA or a degree from a university abroad are not mandatory requirements, as professional experience and the decisions the executives have made over the course of time are.
Hidroelectrica, Oltchim, Romarm, Societatea Nationala a Lignitului Oltenia (National Lignite Company Oltenia – SNLO) and Electrica Furnizare are the first state-owned companies to be run by private sector managers as of next March.
ZF suggests again a list of suitable managers that might make it on the short list of the headhunters, judging from their professional experience and education, as well as from the size of the budgets and duties these managers have in private companies on the local market.
The potential candidates for Hidroelectrica are Monica Hodor and Andrei Gavril. A graduate of the Aerospace Engineering Faculty of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and of the Finance Banking Faculty of the Academy of Economic Studies, Monica Hodor, 43, has been recently appointed chief financial officer of Enel, which posted EUR910.7 million revenue last year and has over 4,700 employees. She was also one of the first employees of the do-it-yourself retailer Praktiker in 2002 and became the first Romanian female chief executive of the local branch of the company.
Andrei Gavril, 33, is a graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies and Oxford Brookes University and currently works as internal audit director at OMV Petrom. He has an eight-year audit experience and joined the largest company in Romania, OMV Petrom, five years ago. Before working for his current employer, he also worked as a financial controller for Wienerberger Romania and as an auditor for KPMG.
The list for Oltchim might include Radu Maftei and Valentin Popoviciu. Radu Maftei, 36, is a graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest and is Procter & Gamble Balkans’ CFO. He was the first Romanian to become CFO of P&G and has been with the company for twelve years, during which he was sent to work at the headquarters in Cincinnati for a while.
Valentin Popoviciu, 34, is RCS&RDS development director. A graduate of the International Business and Economics Faculty in Constanta he joined RCS&RDS as a branch manager in Constanta in 1998 and became its development director a year later. He has been in charge of a number of major projects for the company such as the development of the cellular telephony network. RCS&RDS, one of the most important telecom operators in the region posted EUR420 million revenue and had over 5,000 employees at the end of 2010.
The two recommendations for SNLO are Horatiu Berdila and Anca Georgescu.
Horatiu Berdila, 40, is the chief executive of Romsys, one of the largest IT solutions and services providers on the domestic market. He is a graduate of the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi (NE Romania), and also holds and EMBA degree from ASEBUSS. His previous jobs include sales manager with Orange and commercial manager of Softwin, a company established by Florin Talpes, CEO of BitDefender.
Anca Georgescu, 42, is the human resources manager of Romtelecom. A graduate of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the West University (Universitatea de Vest) in Timisoara she has been working for Romtelecom since 2007, a company that has been going through an extensive restructuring process. She managed the process whereby more than 3,500 employees were laid off over three years, which was part of Romtelecom’s streamlining. She has also worked as HR manager for Coca-Cola Romania and the Polish and Greek subsidiaries of the company.
The suitable candidates for Romarm include Alexandru Blemovici and Bogdan Rotunjanu. Blemovici, 42, is a graduate of the Faculty of Machine-building Technology of the Transilvania University of Brasov (central Romania). He is the general manager of Schaeffler Romania, one of the leading local ball-bearing makers, and supervised a EUR300 million investment project over eight years. He currently runs a business with 3,400 employees and revenue of over EUR300 million.
Bogdan Rotunjanu, 34, is Orange Romania’s IT manager. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. Rotunjanu started out at Orange while still in college and joined the IT department after taking the initiative to improve an application of the company. He manages an over EUR10 million budget.
The list for Electrica Furnizare includes Carmen-Georgeta Neagu and Lucian Marin.
Carmen-Georgeta Neagu, 49, is GE Energy’s region executive for Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova. A graduate of the Power Engineering Faculty of the Polytechnic University, she is part of a highly exclusive club of female managers of energy companies. Among her former employers are Termoelectrica (thermoelectric power producer), where she was head of the restructuring and privatization department.
Lucian Marin, 36, currently works as Coca-Cola HBC Romania & Republic of Moldova commercial manager. A graduate of the Law School of the Romanian-American University, he supervises the sales, key accounts and marketing departments of Coca-Cola HBC Romania and has 800 people reporting to him. Prior to joining his current employer, he worked for L’Oreal and Danone.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)